(FiveNation.com)- On Thursday, a former fire chief in an eastern Ohio town said the controlled burn that discharged deadly chemicals into the air and water after a train derailed might not have been required.
A Norfolk Southern train carrying dangerous chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, on Jan 3, prompting officials to undertake a controlled burn to eliminate the risk of an explosion.
During a community meeting, an administrative deputy chief with a Hazardous Materials & WMD Response Team told residents that he was unaware of any event where the train cars were blown up in a trench and burned. Silverio Caggiano of Mahoming County has not found evidence of this in any case study.
He believes they destroyed everything to clear the tracks for the railroad. In other words, they did it for the money.
The controlled fire was described as a “laboratory experiment from hell” by him.
According to the event website, Thursday’s meeting attracted a big audience, with locals filling overflow rooms to hear from panelists, including Ph.D. scholars, attorneys, and community organizers. People brought up worries about how the discharged chemicals may damage their health and how safe they are in their homes and workplaces. They wondered if government authorities made the correct judgments while reacting to the disaster.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) examined more than five hundred fifty houses as of February 21, with “no exceedances for residential air quality requirements” found.
Stephen Lester, scientific director at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, stated during the conference that the EPA is not testing for dioxins, a family of chemical compounds, according to the EPA. He claimed that dioxins may induce symptoms, including skin rashes, and might be present in the region for years.
The panelists advocated for citizens to have baseline medical exams and to analyze their water and soil.
Public authorities such as EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine sipped the tap water on camera to demonstrate that there are “no water quality problems” with the municipal supply.
