US Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> (EPA) got a first-hand look on Thursday at the toll left by a freight train derailment in Ohio, where toxic chemicals spilled or were burned off, leaving the stench of fresh paint nearly two weeks later.<\/p>\nThe EPA\u2019s administrator, Michael Regan, walked along a creek that still reeks of chemicals and sought to reassure skeptical residents that the water was fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe around East Palestine, where just less than 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania state line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m asking they trust the government. I know that\u2019s hard. We know there\u2019s a lack of trust,\u201d Regan said. \u201cWe\u2019re testing for everything that was on that train.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the derailment, residents have complained about headaches and irritated eyes and finding their cars and lawns covered in soot. The hazardous chemicals that spilled from the train killed thousands of fish and residents have talked about finding dying or sick pets and wildlife.<\/p>\n
Residents are frustrated by what they say is incomplete and vague information about the lasting effects from the disaster, which prompted evacuations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have three grandbabies,\u201d said Kathy Dyke, who came with hundreds of her neighbors to a public meeting on Wednesday where representatives of railroad operator Norfolk Southern were conspicuously absent. \u201cAre they going to grow up here in five years and have cancer?\u201d<\/p>\n
Regan said on Thursday that anyone who is fearful of being in their home should seek testing from the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have been unnerved. They\u2019ve been asked to leave their homes,\u201d he said, adding that if he lived there, he would be willing to move his family back into the area as long as the testing shows it\u2019s safe.<\/p>\n
Those attending the previous night\u2019s informational session had questions about health hazards and demanded more transparency from Norfolk Southern, whose representatives did not attend, citing concerns about staff safety. Many who had waited in a long line snaking outside the high school gymnasium came away upset that they didn\u2019t hear anything new. Some booed or laughed each time they heard the village mayor or state health director assure them that lingering odors weren\u2019t dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just danced around the questions a lot,\u201d said Danielle Deal, who lives a few miles from the derailment site. \u201cNorfolk needed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least five lawsuits have been filed against the railroad, which announced this week that it is creating a $1m fund to help the community while continuing to remove spilled contaminants from the ground and streams, and monitoring air quality.<\/p>\n
Continues …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents from East Palestine demand answers from Norfolk Southern railroad at a public meeting. However, company representatives failed to attend the gathering due to health safety concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":265251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265253,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265249\/revisions\/265253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/265251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}