From: Mike & Stephanie Stout
Date: Tue, Aug 6, 2024, 3:58 AM
Subject: Fwd: Consent Decree Errors That Require A Delay in Approval
To all: I strongly urge you to disseminate this report to ALL your email lists and read it carefully. George Thompson is one of, if not the most authoritative toxicologists in the country. He investigated the East Palestine train derailment and its aftermath, with the release of the 120 carcinogens into our air, water and soil, and how widespread this toxic combination was and will be for years to come. It not only is damning to the Norfolk Southern report and proposed Consent decree, it proves that the toxic mix was unprecedented in history, calling it an apocalyptic catastrophe.
For the residents of EP and the surrounding areas, especially in Western PA, the Norfolk Southern proposed settlement is akin to offering someone a band aid with 3rd degree burns all over their body. In effect, to varying degrees, everyone in the northeast USA and southeast Canada were poisoned for decades to come.
Please help get this truth out.
Mike Stout
IWLA
From: George R. Thompson, Ph.D. email hidden; JavaScript is required
Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2024, 12:44 PM
Subject: FW: Consent Decree Errors That Require A Delay in Approval
To: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Hi Ann,
Thanks for taking my call this morning. I am impressed with the comments from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in your objections to the proposed Settlement Agreement between the US and Norfolk Southern Railroad. In particular, I complement your recognition of this as an “unprecedented event.” My objections to this Proposed Decree are detailed in the email below. In short, I believe Pennsylvania has significantly underestimated your concerns with the proposed Decree. I am anxious to assist you in gasping a more complete awareness of the three dimensions of this “unprecedented event” – namely: scope of potential exposures well beyond 20 miles, numbers and masses of released chemicals (e.g., >120 carcinogens; 8.5 million pounds dispersed), and latency of anticipatable health and environmental effects (e.g., no one is considering potential contamination of the nation’s food chain, particularly from Pennsylvania farmlands contaminated with “forever chemicals”). As offered to the USDOJ in my submission to them, I also offer to schedule a Zoom meeting with you and your Pennsylvania staff for my PPT presentation. My Op-Ed attached to this email provides a text description of my overall observations and concerns. Finally, I have attached my resume as requested. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or would like to schedule my PPT presentation.
Thanks again , and Best regards,
George R. Thompson, PhD
President & CEO
Chemical Compliance Systems, Inc.
From: George R. Thompson, Ph.D. email hidden; JavaScript is required
Sent: Friday, August 2, 2024 10:51 PM
To: ‘email hidden; JavaScript is required’ email hidden; JavaScript is required
Subject: Consent Decree Errors That Require A Delay in Approval
To Whom It May Concern,
I am an independent toxicologist with 55 years of experience in chemical and product hazard assessments. I have published 21 books on hazardous chemicals, have served as an expert witness in 54 lawsuits, and came out of retirement and invested over 500 hours in analyzing the hazards of cargo chemicals on the East Palestine OH train and researched the highly hazardous chemicals generated by the incomplete combustion from the fires. I have tabulated by results in a free presentation of approximately 40 PPT charts, if the Court would like to either view this presentation at your time and convenience using the following Zoom link:
The attached Op-Ed summarizes my overall assessment of what is the worst toxicological disaster in my 55 years of experience, but the details in my presentation are in stark contrast to the chemical and medical information previously provided to the Court.
In this current submission, I summarize just five of my major concerns regarding the health and safety for exposed individuals and the environment seemly underestimated by the Court as evidenced by the sections in the Decree.
1. The 20-Mile Exposure Radius defined in the Settlement Agreement is NOT Supported by the Known Science (see Table 1)
The dynamics of air dispersion from the two East Palestine OH train derailment fires have been independently evaluated using the NOAA HYSPLIT Air Dispersion Module and undermine whatever logic led to the focus on just a 20-mile radius around East Palestine. In this analysis, predicted plume dispersion commenced at 2:00 AM on Saturday 4 February 2023 and concluded at 2:00 PM on Tuesday 7 February 2023. The plume analysis is of particular importance since it identifies where the carbon particles with the hundreds of bound highly chemicals would be carried and dispersed as they fell from the sky. The first derailment burn occurred late on Friday 3 February 2023. The second, “controlled” burn was initiated on Monday 6 February 2023 to avoid the erroneously feared Vinyl Chloride tank explosion.
The plume from the initial fire first headed SE over Pittsburgh about 50 miles away by 10:00 AM 2/4/23 (Table 1). However, the plume expanded into the NE and extended over Lake Erie (about 95 miles away) and Lake Ontario (over 250 miles away) by 10: 00 PM that first day. This NE plume continued to expand across NW New York State and southern Canada through Sunday 5 February 2023.
After the so-called “controlled” burn was ignited on Monday 6 February 2023, three separate plumes formed by 6:00 AM: (1) a small mass over southern Canada, (2) a large mass in central New York along Lake Erie, and (3) a third plume east from East Palestine into Pennsylvania. By 2:00 PM the eastern Ohio plume drifted across northern West Virginia, and Virginia, central Pennsylvania to Maryland and Washington, D.C. (285 miles away). During this same time, the New York plume expanded SE across New York, NE Pennsylvania, NW New Jersey, and western Vermont (over 600 miles away). On Tuesday 7 February 2023, the northerly plume from East Palestine crossed eastern Ohio, and Lake Erie into southern Canada across the Ontario peninsula to Lake Heron (over 300 miles away).
This independent plume dispersion analysis identified over 126,000 square miles affected in over 8 states, plus additional thousands of square miles in southern Canada. The distance of the dispersed plumes from East Palestine were not circular, as assumed at a 20-mile radius in the settlement, but was expansive, 600 miles eastwardly, at least 300 miles northernly, and 285 miles southernly across eight different states and much of southern Canada from Lake Heron to Lake Ontario.
Most of the millions of people living in this vast area do not even recognize that they were probably exposed to “forever” chemicals that can shorten their lives, affect their homes and gardens, pollute farm animals and grounds, thereby affecting our food chain, as well as polluting many community water supplies.
The final Consent Agreement needs to additionally require Norfolk Southern notify the potentially affected public, as well as state and federal agencies, in the vast extent of the pollution dispersion, miles beyond East Palestine, and require that Norfolk Southern fund additional testing and research in the much more extensive exposure zone. This additional research and analysis must be overseen by an independent panel of experts to assure proper tests are run using appropriate protocols, with release of interim and final results to the public.
2. Exposures to Highly Hazardous Chemicals Produced by These Fires Are Unprecedented (see Figure 1 & Table 2)
Independent toxicological analyses of the chemicals and products on the railcars before, and highly hazardous chemicals released after, the fires revealed the East Palestine Ohio train derailment and fires were unprecedented and may become the worst chemical medical disaster in history.
Of the 52 railcars listed on the initial Norfolk Southern manifest, 17 were identified by Norfolk Southern as burned and another 15 were identified as “impinged.” The 52 cars contained 24 different chemicals or products. In their original shipped state, 20/52 railcars contained inert/safe products (e.g., plastic pellets, semolina flour, flakes/powder, metal products, automobiles, frozen vegetables, etc.). The remaining 32 cars contained various types of chemical products.
Prior to the fires, railcar contents included eight chemicals that are known to cause cancer, eight that are allergens, five that cause kidney and liver disease, three that can cause lung diseases, and three that can produce reproductive effects. Subsequent chemicals produced and released into the air by the fires included an additional 120 chemicals known to cause cancer, five that are allergens, 13 that are toxic to the kidney and liver, 11 that cause reproductive effects, 65 that cause brain effects, 45 that damage the heart, 22 that cause asthma, 9 that are corrosive to skin/eyes/throat/lungs, 5 that disrupt hormones, and 3 that are absorbed through the skin (Table 2). The 17 railcars reported by NS as burned contained 5,360,000 pounds of chemicals, the 15 additional “impinged” cars contained 3,220,000 pounds of material, for a total poundage of 8,580,000 pounds of highly hazardous materials released by the fires into the air, and many cause diseases that can be delayed in their onset by 10-20 years. For example, according to the World Trade Center Health Program, 2,974 people died on 9/11, but 4,343 have died since 9/11 from their exposures, and over 71,000 individuals have been diagnosed with physical and mental health conditions in the past 20 years brought on by exposure to the dust, smoke, debris, and trauma of the 9/11 attacks. Similarly, deaths, physical, and mental health conditions will continue to develop in individuals exposed across thousands of square miles to the fire plumes from the East Palestine disaster for decades to come.
Toxicologic chemical hazard assessments are routinely evaluated on the basis of exposure to a single hazardous chemical at levels that are then compared to OSHA, EPA, or other agency designated “safe” levels. That usual paradigm is NOT applicable to the chemical “stew” released by the East Palestine fire (Figure 1) .
Literally hundreds of highly toxic chemicals were created and released simultaneously by the incomplete combustion and fire plume that then dispersed, not just into 20 miles surrounding the East Palestine community, but across the thousands of square miles in eight states and southern Canada. There is no precedent for assessing the potential health and environmental effects of such a complex, apocalyptic event.
The closest approximation would be the burn pits our military personnel were exposed to in Iraq and Afghanistan. The broad-based medical symptoms of those exposed individuals are similar to the 95 reported symptoms in individuals in East Palestine, but symptoms from the Gulf War Syndrome have not yet been fully defined, understood, nor even clinically agreed upon over the past 34 years.
Many highly hazardous causative chemicals from the East Palestine fire were either not analyzed for, or were sampled at inappropriate times or using inappropriate tests. Independent chemical sampling has revealed “forever” dioxin chemicals in home-grown garlic and home heating furnace filter wipe samples. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been independently identified in East Palestine stream sediments and streambeds. The severe and extensive long-term health effects from both dioxins, PAHs and other emission products from the East Palestine fires are listed in the attached Table 2.
Independent compilation and analyses of the 1,500 pages of East Palestine dioxin-related test results found buried on the EPA Website further warrant additional health assessments by independent scientists who can also compile other various sources of existing data, as well as extend their sampling to otherl areas beyond the 20-mile radius restriction stipulated in the proposed Consent Decree.
3. The Expected Latency Period from Large Population Exposures to the Fire-Generated Chemical “Stew” Prevents Delayed Health Injuries from Being Accurately Estimated (see Table 2)
The potential of a disaster is often gauged by the short-term impact, rather than the potential for cumulative losses over the long-term. For example, the 9/11 terrorist attack Is most remembered for the 2,974 deaths that occurred on that first disastrous day. Few people are aware that in the 20 years since 9/11, 4,343 survivors and first responders died (an increase of 143%), according to the World Trade Center Health Program. In addition, over 71,000 people have been diagnosed with physical, and mental health conditions brought on by exposures to the dust, crushed glass, asbestos and the multitude of chemicals created by the initial fires, as well as the 9/11 3-month long smoldering fires. Cancers like mesothelioma are just now starting to be diagnosed.
*The East Palestine apocalypse is a much more insidious disaster*. There were no immediate deaths in Ohio. The federal EPA Administrator and the Ohio Department of Health announced within a few days after the derailment and fires that the air, water, and soil in East Palestine were “safe”. Suffering residents were dumbfounded! Now a year later, these agency statements have been proven false! Cumulated test results have documented that all three environmental media have been significantly polluted by emissions from this apocalypse.
Two months after the disaster, seven workers from the Centers for Disease Control came to East Palestine to evaluate the local health conditions. All seven went home due to a “mystery illness” they contracted while in East Palestine. In late February 2024 (a year after the derailment and fires), a graduate student on assignment from Texas A&M
University came to East Palestine to conduct her research. She immediately experienced the same headaches, irritated nose and throat with labored breathing experienced by local residents. Similarly, an Internet report from a family in Canada near Niagara Falls, reported intense headaches and irritated respiratory systems during the East Palestine Ohio disaster. The East Palestine symptoms have not lonely persisted for over 18 months now, but serious diseases like breast cancer, brain tumors/cancers and nonresponsive bronchial injuries are cumulating. These facts portend that latency periods for medical injuries are already beginning to be manifest.
Analysis of the Chemical Fire Products (*Table 2)* reveals the following concerns about long-term (delayed) toxicological effects from these chemical exposures, whether in and around East Palestine, or at far-reaching remote locations affected by the plume dispersion of the “chemical stew”:
- More than 120 released chemicals are known to cause cancer
- 21 different body organs & organ systems are known to develop cancer from these chemical exposures
- The 13 petroleum trace elements are known to promote cancers actually caused by other chemicals
- The fire-produced chemicals cause serious noncancerous diseases in 9 different body organs.
The timeline of diseases produced from the 9/11 terrorist attacks progressed from PTSD and anxiety at 1-6 months, to decreased birthweights of babies of pregnant women at 5-9 months, respiratory issues start to increase from 2-8 years, cancer diagnoses begin to rise at 2-10 years, drug and alcohol abuse grows at 2-10 years due to chronic PTSD, cardiovascular disease steadily increases at 8-16 years, and latent cancers (e.g., male breast cancers, mesothelioma) evolve at 11-20 years. Although a single case of male breast cancer and another case of two brain tumors/cancers in a second individual have already been reported in East Palestine, other predominant symptoms are thus far closely following the 9/11 sequence of symptoms and disease development.
The Court must assure that Norfolk Southern fund an East Palestine Health Center Program, similar to the World Trade Center Health Program. That East Palestine program must offers free enrollment by anyone within the NOAA HYSPLIT Air Dispersion Model predicted exposure area and provide an active health monitoring and advisory support service for the next 30 years. Over the past year, disaster “seeds” for large scale future illnesses have been planted, and the Court must help assure that those already injured, but not yet aware of their medical injuries, are properly included in the Norfolk Southern funding requirements.
Including the many affected Canadians?
4. Information Presented to the Court and the Public Has Been Misleading, Incomplete, and Inaccurate
To illustrate this point, I will provide independent analyses and responses to 10 questions posed in this case. The so-called expert’s statement will be in italics; my responses are in bold:
- What chemicals were released during the derailment and vent and burn?
“There was a fairly short list of chemicals released during the derailment itself. In addition,… the fire that resulted and the vent and burn also released vinyl chloride into the atmosphere and products of combustion and heat decomposition also released products primarily into the atmosphere.
This is a gross misrepresentation of the magnitude of this complex chemical apocalypse! There were 24 different products in the 52 cars of this derailment. Of the 24 products, 8 were carcinogens (including vinyl chloride), 16 additional products were other hazardous chemicals or products. The fires released 119 chemicals that are known carcinogens. The railcars designated on the Norfolk Southern manifest that burned contained 5,330,000 pounds of materials, and the cars listed as “impinged” contained an additional 3,220,000 pounds of materials, for a total of 8,580,000 pounds of chemicals released into the atmosphere. The chemicals involved in this disaster were not a “short list.“
- What were the amounts of contamination at different distances from the derailment?
“The farther from the derailment, the lower the concentrations were….At the time of the derailment, there was very low wind speed and the plume of the materials from the derailment moved up high into the air before it contacted the community.
This statement ignores the fact that on the day of the derailment there was a temperature inversion, so the plume rose only to about 3,000 feet and spread at that level over a very large area. Numerous residents of East Palestine, and as far south as West Virginia, reported a black dust deposit on their cars, patios, and grounds frm the fallout. This material was never tested for the large spectrum of highly hazardous chemicals generated by the derailment fires.
- How does the amount of contamination compare to regulatory limits, health limits and or background rates?
“A number of agencies have looked at the levels that were found and compared them to their published regulatory limits…The Ohio EPA tested ground water and showed no contaminations at all. The USEPA also did air tests and soil tests at various distances from the derailment site and found that levels were very low. Although they were detectable, they were very low and in the range of, or less than, background levels for those materials.”
These comments do not reflect the unprecedented nature of this East Palestine disaster. Historically and legally, chemical exposure causation is based upon identifying a single chemical that produces the alleged medical symptoms and comparing the measured exposure level to government regulatory limits. In this East Palestine case, the plume of derailment fire emissions contained hundreds of chemicals, many of which individually produce the same medical injuries – cancer, respiratory irritation/corrosion, individual organ toxicity, neurological symptoms, etc. It is meaningless to say an individual chemical is at a low, “safe,” level when exposure from this fire may be to 20 similarly toxic chemicals that produce the same injury. For example, the fire plume at East Palestine (Figure 1) contained at least 10 chemicals that each produce irritation of the skin/eyes/nose/throat/lungs, 6 chemicals that are known to cause nasopharyngeal cancer, 7 chemicals known to cause lung cancer, etc. If one of these chemicals does not exceed its governmental level, it does not mean the combination of chemicals producing that specific toxicity will not cause that illness. This disaster at East Palestine is not only unprecedented because of its emissions complexity, but it is also unprecedented in the geographical area encompassed. In addition, East Palestine residents have experienced at least four different chemical exposure/releases ( Fire #1, Fire #2, track soil remediation, stream bank remediation).
- How does the level of contamination compare to similar communities?
“Levels found in East Palestine were similar to those found in Columbiana because the industrial activity that has occurred in northeast Ohio over many decades has spread a number of chemicals around the environment, so they are present there all the time. But the derailment itself has not contributed to a significant increase of those chemicals in East Palestine.”
This attempted distraction to “industrial activity” is not only unsound, but it is noncontributory towards defining an honest and meaningful Consent Decree. The train derailment and fire in East Palestine involved many chemicals that are not historic to northeast Ohio. Do both Columbiana and East Palestine historically equivalent have vinyl chloride “hotspots” from previous “industrial activity over many decades”? How about the dioxin levels detected in East Palestine? Are they also “present [in Columbiana] all the time? The forever chemicals identified in East Palestine are not from historic industrial activity, but may remain in the community forever. The serious nature of this minimizing and distracting opinion undermines the serious dangers that are resulting from the train derailment and fires.
- Were there carcinogens release?
“Some of the chemicals that were released are known to be associated with cancer. In particular, vinyl chloride is known to be a human liver carcinogen. The levels people in East Palestine were exposed to were so small that I don’t expect any kind of cancer, or any other health effects, to have resulted from this.
This misleading statement ignores the fact that there were 7 other chemical carcinogens in the railcars (i.e., EGMB. petroleum lube oil, fuel additives, benzene, paraffin wax, & hydraulic cement). There was also no mention that the fires released over 120 chemicals known to cause cancer in 21 different organs or organ systems of the body and dozens of other chemicals released by the fires promote cancer development. At least two East Palestine residents have already been diagnosed with cancer – one man with cancer of the breast , and one man with two tumors/cancers in his brain. The rapid development of these cancers can readily be attributed to the carcinogens released by the fires along with the cancer promoting chemicals.
- What are the health impacts associated with chemicals from the derailment?
“Based upon my best judgment, there will not be any long-term health impacts of chemical exposure from the derailment to members of East Palestine.”
This simplistic statement ignores the actual deaths of over 43,000 fish in East Palestine streams, chickens, foxes, and cats within the first week or so after the derailment. It also does not account for the 95 reported medical symptoms reported by residents of East Palestine and surrounding communities, nor the family in Canada near Niagara Falls that experienced the same irritation symptoms as East Palestine residents during the week of the fires were burning and plume dispersion showed the cloud traversed southern Canada. It also does not account for the two cases of cancer already diagnosed in East Palestine, not the illness still being experienced by residents and visitors 18 months after the catastrophe.
- How much higher would contamination levels have to be in order to be at a dangerous level?
“The amount of contamination that would be associated with measurable health effects would depend upon the individual chemicals and to some extent on the characteristics of exposure. I can tell you that the chemical contaminations that have been clearly associated with health effects in communities have been hundreds of times greater than the measured levels that we are now finding in East Palestine.”
This reasoning of one-chemical-one-effect does NOT apply to the complex apocalypse that occurred in East Palestine, as previously stated. In my 55 years of experience, I know of no other incident where 8,500,000 pounds of diverse, hot chemicals were released as a ”chemical stew” over a community and dispersed over a massive geographic area like occurred in East Palestine. This is unprecedented and is so complex that historic procedures for adequately performing a credible exposure hazard analysis and justly rendering legal decisions are the basis for creating inspired new methods and procedures. Causation in hazard analyses and legal judgments must both abandon the one-chemical-one-effect presumption and create methods and procedure, criteria and definitions that will fairly and logically provide a defensible basis to evaluate highly complex mixture exposure assessments as well as fair and just legal decisions. IN this case, the Court needs to give substantially more time for these creative demands to be rendered.
- What are the chances of someone developing an illness like cancer in the future because of this chemical exposure?
“Because there’s some small levels of chemicals that evolved, the risk to due to those chemical exposures is not zero either, but it is very small. It is much, much smaller than 1%. I would personally not expect one person to develop cancer as a result of the exposure to the chemicals in East Palestine. We know that there are lots of things people are exposed to all the time that are more likely to cause cancer and so the result of the exposure to chemicals from the train derailment is much less of a risk than those other exposures.” I bolded the “I” and “We.” Fucking wow. Just fucking wow. What a galling “expert” opinion. Did the railway company’s CEO write it up?
This opinion is belied by the fact that two men in East Palestine have already developed unique cancers in just 18 months after the derailment and fire. Coincidentally I guess, the train released 8 chemical carcinogens and the fires released another 119 chemicals known to cause cancer, as well as numerous other chemicals that promote the development of cancer. Were the early EPA detection results of dioxins buried from public view until recently presented to the Court? FYI, dioxins are known to cause cancer of the breast, pancreas and colon, and the first breast cancer in a man identified in an East Palestine resident that lived very near Ground Zero. As previously stated (see #3 Above), the large number of fire released chemicals that each cause a specific organ cancer greatly increases the risk that a cancer can develop in that organ – toxic effects are often additive.
- How will levels of chemical contamination increase or decrease over time?
“ Any chemical distribute around the community will decrease over time…levels will continue to decrease over time…they will never get more than now.”
A number of the chemicals released by the fires are “forever” chemicals – they disappear very slowly from the environment and linger long in our body fat once absorbed by inhalation, from drinking water, or from contaminated food consumption. Long-standing environmental depositions in East Palestine have been discovered in railroad beds, stream banks, and stream sediments. Special remediation is required to remove the sources of toxic chemicals.
- How would you respond to claims it’s too early to know the long-term health effects of the derailment?
“Yes, it is too early for some things, but it’s not too early to predict the overall health effects that will occur from this. Certainly, if we’re thinking of one potential cancer that occurs 20 years from now, it’s too soon to count that, but we pretty well know what exposures resulted from this train derailment, and we can pretty well predict that people will be safe in the long term.”!!!!!
There are two major errors in this statement. First, many of the chemicals released by the fire were not tested for in the air, water, soil, homes, and public areas, even when requested. In some cases, sampling protocols and analytical procedures were not credible. This leaves a huge gap in confidence for residents that have been are suffering health effects, but do not know what they were exposed to, and are told that there is no pollution in their environment. Second, with hundreds of chemicals released in the massive, week-long plume, prediction of future health effects from potentially hundreds of chemical exposures is uncertain at best, and misleading at worst.
The scientific and medical assumptions upon which this Consent Decree is based are highly flawed, are incomplete, and utilize faulty assumptions when credible, supplemental data can be developed as a basis for a more credible Decree. The Court priority should be full protection and coverage for the citizens of East Palestine, not rushing to a quick decision to avoid headlines for Norfolk Southern and clear the deck of a very complex issue! The residents of East Palestine are still looking thorough the mist of deceit and deception while hoping to find the truth.
5. Newly Funded Research at Six Universities Will Provide Critical Information Not Previously Available to the NTSB
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) funded six research projects specific to the East Palestine Ohio train derailment and associated chemical exposures in 2024:
- Case Western Reserve University – Federick Ray Schumacher, Ph.D. Principal Investigator This research team will talk to East Palestine residents to better understand their experiences and concerns during and after the disaster and initiate a long-term follow-up study to better understand the impact of chemical exposures on health caused by DNA damage.
- Texas A&M University – Natalie Johnson, Ph.D. Principal Investigator This team will utilize a mobile air sampling strategy to rapidly characterize potential health risks from hazardous volatile organic chemical (VOC) exposures in the after math and recovery phases of this disaster.
- University of California, San Diego – Beatrice Golomb, M.D., Ph.D. Principal Investigator These researchers have conducted interviews with affected East Palestine residents to assess the 2–3-year health impacts of being exposed to a mixture of toxins.
University of Kentucky – Erin Hayes, Dr. P.H. This research team will utilize an online survey to collect longitudinal measures of health symptoms, stress, and well-being of East Palestine residents and establish a research network to help disseminate research findings to the community.- University of Pittsburgh – Peng Gao, Ph.D. Principal investigator This team will collect soil, water, and sediment samples to assess the extent of chemical contamination and document the ongoing impact on the region’s local environment and highly connected waterways.
- University of Pittsburgh – Juliane Beier, Ph.D. and Maureen Lichtveld M.D., M.P.H. Principal Co-Investigators This project will collect water and air samples in the homes of East Palestine residents And collect blood samples and other health data to assess impacts of vinyl chloride and other chemicals on the liver.
The Ohio Rural Health Association has scheduled a virtual webinar on 14 August 2024 where each of these universities will report the current status of their research projects. Their findings can significantly affect the scope of injuries and damages, expand the size of the class action members, and further document the damages to be covered – particularly damages related to latent and delayed health effects that can be manifest decades from now, or even in future generations. Much of the research previously presented to the Court was conducted by Norfolk Southern and their contractors and focused predominantly on a narrow range of chemicals rather than the large numbers of “forever” chemicals produced by the fire. The University of California group in particular has prior experience in assessing health effects in mixtures of fire-generated highly hazardous chemicals. The Court must allow sufficient time for this highly complex, apocalyptic disaster to be thoroughly researched and analyzed to assure maximum protection for exposed individuals and the environment has been more completely considered before the Consent Decree is approved. Please let me know when you would like to see the PPT presentation, or if I can be of help in any other way.
Best regards,
George R. Thompson, PhD
President & CEO
Chemical Compliance Systems, Inc.
14 Ridge Circle
Wantage, New Jersey 07461
973.906.3687
email hidden; JavaScript is required
[Attachments as hyperlinked above:]
2023 03 22 Op-ED Release #1 East Palestine
2024 06 14 Table 1 East Palestine train derailment Air Dispersion Model
2024 06 18 Figure 1 East Palestine train derailment Apocalyptic fire
2024 02 24 Table 2 East Palestine train derailment Chemical Fire Products
2024 05 29 Resume Dr George R Thompson
***
Refer also to:
Fox Dies in Owner’s Arms After Ohio Train Crash Releases Toxic Gas by Anna Skinner, Feb 10, 2023, Newsweek
An Ohio resident’s exotic animals are suffering a week after a train derailment caused a chemical spill of vinyl chloride.
The train derailment last week in East Palestine caused a massive fire and concerns over a possible explosion that would further release toxic gases and chemicals. The train cars carried vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed monitors in the town, according to WFMJ. An evacuation order was placed and then eventually lifted, allowing people to return to their homes. However, one resident is still dealing with the devastating effects on his animals.
Taylor Holzer told Newsweek that he’s always loved animals. The East Palestine resident takes care of various animals, many of them rescues, including foxes, coyotes, squirrels, tortoises and exotic birds.
All of his foxes have been affected by the chemical spill. One fox died, and Holzer suspects it was from chemical exposure from the derailment.
“He went downhill very fast,” Holzer said, describing the fox as having symptoms such as diarrhea and breathing issues. “He crashed so fast and unexpectedly. He wasn’t able to blink or function properly as he died in my arms.” …
2018:
