When I first asked people I knew about the Ohio train derailment, nobody knew what I was talking about. They had not heard of it. I had heard about it on The Guardian, which is a reputable source through which I get most of my news. But when I watched the news, the channel I was on was not covering it. I soon realized that every channel had not mentioned it once. For weeks after it happened, no news station on TV had covered one substantive story about the train derailment.

However, we would soon learn that this is one of the worst chemical disasters in America’s history, not dissimilar to Chernobyl, a nuclear accident that happened at a power plant in Russia in 1986. 

What Happened

The derailment happened along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, 2023, and belonged to Norfolk Southern Railway. The train cars crashed into each other spewing the toxic chemicals inside. Residents’ homes were filled with foul-smelling fumes and exposed to many carcinogenic compounds. Local waterways have been tainted. There are reports of dead fish and animals as far as 20 miles away from the site. Some living in the area have reported symptoms of chemical exposure and have also reported pets dying suddenly. The long term effects are still unknown, although predictions include toxic compounds remaining in the environment and food web for a very long time.

One of the chemicals spilled in the derailment is called vinyl chloride and is a deadly and dangerous carcinogen. Norfolk Southern is performing controlled releases of the chemical to prevent an explosion of deadly shrapnel and chemicals to the surrounding areas. Some are skeptical about this process of controlled release as it could be more harmful releasing these chemicals into the atmosphere. There is also speculation that the company could be doing it this way to get the railroad back on track faster, whereas other ways of cleaning up would further delay normal operations. Numerous complaints were filed by employees of the company stating that the railroads urgently needed to be fixed to prevent something like this, but the company denied these requests in order to cut maintenance costs, all while reporting record breaking profits. Like many large corporations, Norfolk does not seem to care about the wellbeing of their employees or anyone else. The only thing that matters is to generate more and more profit, even if it means many others will suffer. Officials released a statement to the east palestine residents saying it was safe to return home after evacuation, but many know the air quality is at dangerous levels and they do not want to take the risk. The town has been deemed by some as unlivable for quite some time. 

We need to do better

This is not an uncommon occurrence. According to the EPA, It is estimated that there are 150 chemical accidents a year in the U.S. It is clear that we need to push our government administration and agencies to have better safety regulations, but also hold these large corporations accountable for their actions and the destruction and havoc they can cause by not following guidelines and investing in their employees and ensuring the safety of people and the environment.