EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – The village was mostly quiet Tuesday, three years since a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and upended daily life for residents.
The fiery crash Feb. 3, 2023, led to a controlled vent and burn of train cars containing vinyl chloride three days later.
Unlike previous anniversaries, this year wasn’t marked by visits from high-level politicians, protesters and national media.
But many residents still want answers, mostly about their future and their health.
“What followed [the derailment] was not just an environmental disaster but months, even years, of uncertainty, fear and unanswered questions – questions about our health, our safety and our future,” said Misti Allison, community advisory board chair for the East Palestine Train Derailment Health Research Program. “For those of us who live here and for our neighbors in nearby communities across Pennsylvania and throughout Ohio, this has never been just a headline or a news cycle. It has been our lived experience.”
After the derailment, many residents of the village and the surrounding area in both Ohio and Pennsylvania asked for long-term health impact answers and monitoring.
In the early days after the derailment, the focus was on immediate concerns, but the needs of the community have evolved into long-term questions and strategies, said Antonio Diaz-Guy, who is now the village manager.
On the third anniversary of the derailment, Dr. Kyle Walsh, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, officially delivered $10 million that was promised by federal officials to provide five more years of studies into the effects of the derailment through the work of research teams from the University of Kentucky, the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University. Community listening sessions kicked off the new studies Monday evening, and the East Palestine Train Derailment Health Research Program’s center officially opened Tuesday at The Way Station.
Walsh said the researchers, buoyed by federal dollars, will be able to strategically steer their research where the community’s concerns lie.
“We wanted to hear about their concerns, their worries, what their hopes are for the future and learn what we can do to support that,” Walsh said. “I think this team is just absolutely magnificently poised to do that. I hope the community will welcome them and engage them.”
Dr. Juliane Beier, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, was involved in the six earlier studies that received initial funding. At first her research focused on how the numerous chemical exposures were showing up in the liver function of residents.
“And then the community was saying, ‘We want our thyroid to be looked at as well,’” Beier said, noting both liver and thyroid disease develop over time and the dysfunction of one organ feeds problems with the other.
Beier said liver disease that is caught in early stages can be reversed, but in later stages it cannot. She suggested that the environmental hepatology tests her researchers are using, including a specialized noninvasive fiber scan, are more sensitive to catch symptoms.
“For some reason, toxic chemicals don’t necessarily trigger your normal liver function test,” Beier said.
The research will be led by Dr. Erin Haynes of the University of Kentucky. She said the early research is showing trends in the data, and she is excited to have office space at The Way Station where the team can communicate with the community. Haynes said the next step is to get residents and others affected by the derailment to start signing up for the studies, even if they participated in a previous study or haven’t experienced any symptoms related to the derailment.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health, spoke Tuesday about being among many state officials in East Palestine in the early days following the derailment. His department’s officials were involved in surveying early health concerns for those in the area, monitoring the situation and setting up a mobile clinic and then a more permanent clinic along with East Liverpool City Hospital.
“This is a very important step as we look forward to the future,” Vanderhoff said. “This really is a tremendous opportunity, and we are grateful for the investment from our federal partners and the active engagement of these very respected academic institutions.”
Diaz-Guy said he would love to be able to give the residents concrete answers three years after the derailment, but he knows research takes time. He wants to encourage residents, even those who are not experiencing any symptoms, to participate in the new studies and other upcoming efforts to make the village a healthy place to live.
“So this is my commitment today, that I think we need to move forward with East Palestine being the healthiest community we can possibly be, absent of whatever happened in the past,” Diaz-Guy said. “And so you will see small steps moving forward about personal health, diet, cigarette, alcohol use and things like that. … These are very direct ways that we can impact our community’s health, despite whatever this research does or does not find.”
Allison will be at the East Palestine Train Derailment Health Research Program center often, along with Chaney Nezbeth, CEO and executive director of The Way Station, and they will help those who don’t have access to computers or email to sign up to be part of the studies and to fill out survey forms.
“While we would like answers right away, everything does take longer than you think it will be,” Allison said. “I always say that health care isn’t a sprint – it’s a marathon. And this is just one more step toward hopefully getting the answers that we need to know, what we need to do for our health and for our loved ones.”
Health care and research isn’t the only thing that has moved slowly since the derailment.
U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-6th, held a press conference on Capital Hill on Tuesday, urging the passage of bipartisan legislation that was introduced after the derailment.
“Bipartisan support was critical when Ohio set up a commission to oversee rail safety, because trains like the one in East Palestine pass through cities like Cleveland and Columbus, affecting countless communities,” Rulli said. “Farmers worry about their crops and livestock. Residents worry about their long-term health. The people of East Palestine face potential health risks for decades. We urge committee chairs to take these safety bills seriously. This is a strong bill that deserves support. It’s good for America, good for rail workers and critical for the future of rail safety.”
Those bills include the Railway Safety Act, which would strengthen federal oversight of railroads. It has reportedly been held up by the railroad lobbies.
Pictured at top: Railroad tracks near where a Norfolk Southern train derailed Feb. 3, 2023, in East Palestine.