Ohio train derailment released toxic chemicals in the air.

 

The plume of smoke from the train derailment in East Palestine Ohio. AP.

A trail derailment in East Palestine Ohio has released toxic chemicals into the air. Yahoo News. The accident happened in February 3rd. The train released chemicals including vinyl chloride, a chemical used in plastic production. However, the chemical is extremely toxic and can cause multiple kinds of cancer. The town was evacuated and residence have since been allowed back into their homes. The chemical released caused a major fish kill in local streams as well as causing deaths among animals and livestock. There are also concerns that the cloud of vinyl chloride may have contaminated the Ohio river. 

My Comment:

This story has been bubbling under the surface for a couple weeks now. I had been paying attention to it because despite the fact that the story going viral on websites like Twitter, 4chan and Reddit, the mainstream media was not paying attention to it at all, largely due to the Chinese spy balloon issue. 

But this is appears to be one of the worst environmental disasters in recent American history. If water has been contaminated then there is a real chance of this being even bigger than reported. The Ohio River is a major waterway and a lot of people get their drinking water from the system. 

The hope is that most of the vinyl chloride burned up during the controlled detonation of the derailed train cars. But there is no chance that all of it did. Some of this escaped and people were likely exposed to it. Given how dangerous the chemical is there will likely be quite a few cases of cancer from this disaster and more than a few deaths. 

The environmental problems might be worse than just the cancer causing vinyl chloride. Supposedly the toxic cloud caused some acid rain to fall as well, which could damage Pennsylvania's forests. This would be horrible for the environment and could cause more fish kills and damage to trees. Not to mention contaminating further water supplies. 

There are major political implications for this story and the lack of coverage. There was a major controversy recently with the American rail system as many unions went on strikes. Most of the issue was about paid time off, but safety concerns were brought up as well. Biden decided he wasn't going to let the rail unions strike and had congress pass a bill stopping it. Since safety was a major concern it's very possible that decision lead directly to this accident. 

I think Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bears quite a bit of responsibility for this as well. This happened on his watch as well, and there have been many other failures for him during his short tenure. He's not doing a good job and it's not a good sign that the Transportation Secretary is constantly in the news. Indeed, today he was talking about white contractors are taking jobs from people of color, which is about as irrelevant as you can get. 

I don't expect any of the problems that caused this accident to be fixed or for the people that have been injured to get any justice either. I just have very little faith in our government to be at all competent anymore. It's been a problem for awhile but under Joe Biden it's accelerating...