Cancerous but mostly peaceful derailment
Poisonous gas from a train somehow gets so little media coverage?
In 2012, a Conrail train derailed releasing 20,000 gallons of toxic vinyl chloride into the air. Over 600 residents were evacuated and a further 28 required medical assistance as is detailed in a report from the National Travel Safety Board. The cause of the minor disaster was not due to some technological problem, but rather improper execution of existing hazardous material response protocols.
At first, officials said erroneously that the vapor cloud was nontoxic, changing the evacuation order to shelter-in-place. “Therefore the community protective measures were based on incorrect information about the released material,” the aforementioned report said. (perhaps we should be skeptical of future claims by officials?)
Later, in 2015 the EPA caused a seemingly unrelated environmental disaster (yes you read that right, the Environmental Protection Agency did not protect the environment). They caused the accident by breaching a tailings dam while attempting to drain ponded water near the entrance of the Gold King mine. (Maybe don’t trust the EPA too much?)
Back to trains and chemicals.
On February 3rd, 2023, there was another far more major train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of vinyl chloride spilled and the Norfolk Southern company that operated that freight rightfully decided to burn it to stop an explosion as reported by the Ohio Governor. (no, this does not turn it into phosgene gas, but rather HCl is the main threat which is far more minor but still a problem).
Some people blame this disaster on Trump’s refusal to use electronic pneumatic braking, but this holds little water (comparisons have found air actuated to be better than electric). The real problem is mechanical wear with the NTSB reporting “We have obtained two videos which show preliminary indications of mechanical issues on one of the railcar axles,” though I’d argue the real problem is shipping vinyl chloride in this fashion should be criminal but it’s not (probably to reduce costs).
The dillution of these chemicals is massive as the air expands out into the atmosphere to “fill the container” dilluting by a cubic function. This means, the impact of the gas is minimal outside of the immediate vicinity. Nonetheless, the response by Norfolk Southern was insulting, offering only $5 per resident (maybe that’s why they aren’t going to the townhall).
I think the EPA results are mostly trustworthy as they were produced incredibly quickly and fabricating such complexity with no timeframe is nigh impossible. The EPA was aware of possible threats, monitored them and solved them. Though if the past few years have taught us anything, it is to be skeptical of government reports. Nonetheless, it has spread into the air and water. Even air monitoring groups supported the increased scope of evacuation (though keen readers may see that this source is on webarchive and his since been removed, spooky).
“On the evening of Feb. 13, U.S. EPA discontinued air monitoring for phosgene and hydrogen chloride community air monitoring. After the fire was extinguished on Feb. 8, the threat of vinyl chloride fire producing phosgene and hydrogen chloride no longer exists. U.S. EPA will continue 24-hour community air monitoring for other chemicals of concern.
Furthermore, water monitoring found the water to be safe to drink. I’d still exercise caution just as I think the Japanese should have when their government said the water from Fukushima was safe. The Ohio EPA even admits that private water that is closer to the ground is potentially at risk. This could mean that surface water could have toxic levels in it. I wouldn’t sign any liability waivers though I don’t know if they are even giving those out.
Because private water wells may be closer to the surface than the municipal water wells, the Ohio EPA recommends that those who receive drinking water from private water wells schedule an appointment for well water testing by an independent consultant.
Biomagnification is the process of chemicals magnifying in concentration as organisms in lower trophic levels are consumed by higher trophic level organisms. Thus, any toxins are most likely to affect the apex predators. Keep this in mind as we examine the impact of the gas on the wildlife.
A woman 10 miles from East Palestine found all her Chickens dead. While the toxins are severely dilluted in air, they aren’t once in the bodies of animals and crops.
Vinyl chloride is apparently less troublesome for “aquatic organisms,” according to the report, and it is less of a danger if released into the air as opposed to the ground or water. In East Palestine, there ha[ve] been [at least 3,500] fish kill[ed] due to the vinyl chloride contamination. How bad is it for terrestrial organisms? A not too trustworthy source (in my opinion) claims a video journalist got sick from going near the site of the derailment but this could be psychosomatic, coincidnece, a lie, or perhaps the truth. I don’t believe air exposure could be too lethal, but water or ground contamination is probably a concern.
Maybe you see these clouds of toxic gas and are alarmed since no one knows the truth of how bad they are. Just don’t post it on Reddit.
Perhaps this was on purpose. Put on the tinfoil?
The main thing that makes me think this is the re-classification of vinyl chloride (deja vu?). What are the odds that after 17 years the CDC would re-classify the toxocological profile of Vinyl Chloride a few weeks before the East Palestine derailment? It was last edited in January 2023. No way they are trying to downplay it even more than they were earlier when this research paper concluded so, right?
The timing is also very ominous as a few other disasters lined up at the same time. Another hazmat warning with a fire at a warehouse, and a tanker catching on fire in Tulsa, and more. Not to mention the water contamination that feeds our food supply lines up with the egg shortages and the spates of food plant burning. Although, the rate isn’t that much higher so this is also not super convincing. Chemical spills happen all the time.
The only somewhat unique thing here is the spillage into the water. Which is concerning but not apocalyptic.
Of course, there are other even less convincing “proofs” such as the tenuous predictive programming links (this film was based on a book from much earlier though the release timing could have been deliberate).
As far environmental air disasters go, this is nothing compared to the Kuwaiti Oil Fires, burning of the Amazon forest, or of course, normal California forestry.
Finally, I want to touch on the handling of these chemicals. This was corporate malfeasance undoubtedly and I don’t think it builds on any conspiracy, it is undeniable. There are safe ways to transport hazmat even far more lethal (though similarly dillute at far distances) nuclear material (whether spent, unspent, or waste). These are tested relentlessly and are blast proof, fire proof, and unlikely to cause any problems. From my knowledge, no chemicals spilled from the recent train derailment in Texas (and they weren’t even using nuclear flasks) perhaps due to better procedures or materials. Chemical spills via train are only increasing in frequency with 1/4 of all spills due to trains up from 1/10 earlier this decade. Not sure what to make of this if it’s an actual trend or just a coincidental non-outlier statistically believable shift.
If anything can be learned from this it’s that we need to change our broken rail laws, infrastructure, and system. The impact isn’t as bad as many would first think but I think we should still exercise caution since I don’t think we can trust agencies too much. As far as conspiracies go, the change to vinyl chloride is alarming but nothing else holds water. The previous changes to vinyl chloride are further reasons that perhaps we can’t trust these agencies too much but at the end of the day, dillution in the air makes it such that other than with biomagnification or nearby water sites, the problem isn’t too big. Still, I’d sue the hell out of Norfolk Southern.
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1636774035672514577
Seems like ground contamination was a valid worry.