More than a year after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, a research team from the University of California - San Diego is conducting resident surveys and medical tests to determine the public health impacts.
The university's Golomb Research Group is conducting the research. The results will enumerate health risks of residents' exposure to chemicals such as vinyl chloride, a carcinogen. It will also identify possible treatments for those exposed.
Lead researcher Beatrice Golomb, a professor of medicine at the university, told Ideastream Public Media her team initiated the three-year study in March 2023 because they believed the train's operator, Norfolk Southern, was minimizing the potential risks. The team also has experience assessing similar situations.
"Even if it could be known that all the [exposure] levels were within individual safe levels, because these mechanisms are shared across toxins, they add up," she said. "And so levels of individual chemicals that may be safe may be very far from safe in combination."
Following the Feb. 3, 2023 derailment, East Palestine's fire chief made the decision to vent and burn the vinyl chloride in five tanker cars for fear the chemicals would cause a toxic explosion.
Golomb said she has studied the outcomes of similar events, including exposure to burn pits by soldiers during the Gulf War.
Based on the team's initial assessments, she said, the East Palestine exposure seems to mirror the harms those soldiers faced, known as Gulf War Illness. Symptoms included fatigue, muscle aches and weakness, shortness of breath and headaches.
The findings from the East Palestine study will inform similar episodes throughout the country, Golomb said.
"There are over 15,000 toxin release accidents per year in the United States and often the size of the population or their political clout is not sufficient" to attract significant studies, she said. "People are sickened at each of those events."
Researchers are currently recruiting participants in the study, asking East Palestine residents to fill out surveys, complete blood tests and join question-and-answer sessions such as one conducted via Zoom on April 10.
The surveys assess "exposure-related factors," Golomb said. "Things like, 'Where is your home relative to the derailment? Did you evacuate? When did you come back? And health factors like, 'What health problems have emerged?'"
Golomb said the information will be used to identify people who may be at risk for additional health problems and develop treatment options.
"The point is to help the community," she said.
The latest question-and-answer session, conducted April 10 via Zoom, also addressed how residents should limit exposure to chemicals such as those found in pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, solvents, fuels and chemical cleaners to minimize compacting harm from their derailment exposure. Attendees were also urged to avoid habits like smoking and activities that involve heavy exertion.
Golomb said more sessions will be scheduled and will be posted on the research project's website. The study's release date has not yet been determined.
