On the night of Friday, February 3, a company train norfolk south what was he wearing 20 wagons with hazardous materials It was traveling through the northeastern United States when it caught fire after derailing. The next day will probably see the evacuation of almost half the inhabitants of East Palestine, an ohio town where 4,800 people live.
About five containers carried vinyl chloride, an unstable and extremely combustible gas, the emergency teams decide to burn it in a controlled manner to prevent the train from becoming a bomb. far from bringing peace of mind, the explosion sent a huge flame into the atmosphere and drew a toxic plume over the townsimilar to that of atomic mushrooms.
After assuring that no contaminants were found in the air and water, the authorities lifted the evacuation order. But many residents are wary. Hay dead fish and frogs in streams. Images of carcasses of chickens, dogs and foxes. Neighbors complain that their eyes burn. In a neighboring town, the government advice was to open windows, turn on fans and clean surfaces with diluted bleach.
As the air in East Palestine begins to smell like an overly chlorinated swimming pool, the main unknown is what was the actual escalation of the spill and will they need the long term consequences. Vinyl chloride, used to make PVC pipe, can cause dizziness, drowsiness, and headaches; It is also associated with a increased risk of cancer. Some reports indicate that it has already reached the Ohio River, a source of water for 10% of the population of the country. Another of the spilled substances, butyl acrylate, is a colorless liquid used in the manufacture of plastics and paints. After inhalation or absorption through the skin, can cause lung damage.
As the accident coincided with the sighting of several unidentified flying objects over the North American sky, there was no shortage of those who viralized conspiracy theories. “UFOs to cover a Chernobyl?”, was the questioning of those who denounce that these apparitions are a smokescreen to divert attention from the disaster. The version gained momentum after the arrest of the journalist Evan Lambert, who covered the episode, for reasons not entirely indicated.
For others, in the back room there is something worse: the danger of “train-bombs” carrying oil and other dangerous substanceswith the aggravating circumstance that companies such as Norfolk Southern itself lobbied against safety regulations that expanded the requirement to update braking systems dating from the time of the civil war. For now, there is only one certainty: every time they hear the train siren, the inhabitants of East Palestine shudder again.
FM
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