East Palestine Residents ‘May Already Be Undergoing DNA Mutations’
A lawyer representing plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, alleged that some residents of the town may “already be undergoing DNA mutations” after the incident earlier this month
“I’m not sure Norfolk Southern could have come up with a worse plan to address this disaster,” said attorney John Morgan, who is representing plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit, in reference to the train operator. “Residents exposed to vinyl chloride may already be undergoing DNA mutations that could linger for years or even decades before manifesting as terrible and deadly cancers.”
Their “lawsuit alleges that Norfolk Southern made it worse by essentially blasting the town with chemicals as they focused on restoring train service and protecting their shareholders,” Morgan told local media WFMJ-TV as well as USA Today this week.
Morgan did not provide specific evidence for his claims regarding DNA mutations.
The latest lawsuit was filed Wednesday his law firm Morgan & Morgan in U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Ohio.
It’s one of six suits that Norfolk Southern now faces after the train derailment earlier this month, according to the outlet.
It contends that “Norfolk Southern blew holes in its vinyl chloride cars, and dumped 1,109,400 pounds of cancer causing vinyl chloride directly into the environment,” reported the paper. Additionally, the lawsuit argues Norfolk Southern released more vinyl chloride—a highly toxic chemical—into the air than all industrial emitters did in 2021.
According to the federal National Cancer Institute, vinyl chloride is used to make polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which is found in numerous plastic products—including plumbing.
But “vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia,” its website says.
A research paper released in 2007 published in the Journal of Human Genetics noted that vinyl chloride is a “human carcinogen that is known to undergo metabolism” in the liver that can ultimately “cause oncogene and tumor suppressor gene mutations.” And an introduction for the paper said the chemical is “a known animal and human carcinogen capable of damaging DNA.”
Morgan’s lawsuit and the other suits are seeking damages from Norfolk Southern. The train operator has yet to file a response to the complaints in court.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Norfolk Southern said it is “unable to comment on anything that may be material to the [National Transportation Safety Board’s] investigation, and we are unable to comment on pending litigation.”
It provided a fact sheet that said “new water testing results have been returned to the Ohio EPA,” which “show no detection of contaminants in raw water from the five wells that feed into East Palestine’s municipal water system … test results from the combined, treated water from all five wells also showed no detection of contaminants associated with the derailment.”
‘We Will Not Walk Away’
Norfolk Southern announced Tuesday that it is creating a $1 million fund to help the community of some 4,700 people while continuing remediation work, including removing spilled contaminants from the ground and streams and monitoring air quality.
It also will expand how many residents can be reimbursed for their evacuation costs, covering the entire village and surrounding area.
“We will be judged by our actions,” Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said in a statement that also said the company is “cleaning up the site in an environmentally responsible way.”
Shaw also released a longer news release and declared “we will not walk away, East Palestine.”
“When I visited East Palestine last week, you told me how the train derailment has upended your lives and how concerned you are about the safety of your air, water, and land. Many of you have also reached out to Norfolk Southern to share your fears, your anger, and your frustration,” he said.
The CEO said that Norfolk Southern crews are on-site and cleaning the area and will be using its “Family Assistance Center” to help East Palestine residents. “I know there are still a lot of questions without answers. I know you’re tired. I know you’re worried. We will not let you down,” he said.
FEMA Turns Down Request
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency turned down a request for federal disaster assistance from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, his office confirmed Thursday.
DeWine wrote on Twitter that his “administration has been in daily contact [with] FEMA to discuss the need for federal support, but FEMA continues to advise that Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time” and that he “will continue working with FEMA to determine what assistance can be provided.”
Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for DeWine, also told news outlets that FEMA told his office that the incident likely doesn’t qualify for disaster relief and that FEMA usually provides federal aid in the aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake.
But Ohio was able to obtain some assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to aid residents with potential medical costs connected to the chemical spill and fire, he said.
Norfolk Southern, the operator of the derailed train, also is providing some financial aid to East Palestine residents, Tierney told Fox News. If Norfolk Southern doesn’t do so, the Ohio attorney general’s office will get involved and hold the railway operator’s “feet to the fire,” he said.
When reached for comment, FEMA said Thursday that the emergency agency “is in constant contact with the emergency operations center in East Palestine and with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency,” adding it is “closely coordinating with EPA, HHS, and the CDC, who are helping to test water and air quality, and to conduct public health assessments.”
The agency did not provide a response to an Epoch Times question about DeWine’s Twitter statement that Ohio isn’t eligible for FEMA assistance.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) also sent a letter (pdf) to DeWine earlier this week and asked the governor to declare the derailment a disaster because “a man-made disaster of this scale, scope, and significance necessitates a response and deployment of resources that are commensurate in scale and scope.”
See more here theepochtimes.com
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Herb Rose
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The railroad tank cars are made from1″ steel plate, sealed to prevent venting or leakage, and designed to withstand train wrecks. There was no leakage after the wreck or threat of explosion. The normal procedure is to pump the contents to another tank car just as it was pumped into the car initially. The plan to dig a trench for the vinyl chloride so it could seep into the ground, contaminating the water, then light it on fire to produce poisonous gases had to be a government solution based on their stupidity and ignorance. They want credit for dealing with a problem by finding the worst possible solution with the greatest publicity. This is what happens when idiots are in charge.
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Howdy
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For anybody interested in the safety features. Rail Tank Car 101:
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D. Boss
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For those not versed in actual firefighting issues I suggest you refrain from silly pronouncements and do some homework. I am not defending the rail company or the gov, just pointing out facts of importance here, namely a BLEVE. With any flammable liquid in a tank, involved in an exterior fire, there is a risk of a BLEVE. BLEVE events are devastating and there are few ways to prevent them. One being to shoot enough water at the tank walls to keep them cool whilst fighting the fire, or as it appears they did here, blow holes in the tanks to rapidly empty them.
There would be no time, nor ability to slowly drain the tanks involved in the fire before extremely devastating BLEVE events occurred, which literally could have wiped the town off the map.
Is the gov ignorant – you betcha, but fire fighting has learned about BLEVE the hard way and the potential here was enormous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM0jtD_OWLU (BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) Demonstration – How it Happens Training Video)
The following video has some facts wrong, but does show the absolutely immense and sobering scope of large tank BLEVE events:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuPVEsQaGB0 (Horrifying Bleve Explosions Around The World )
Notice at the beginning of the above video are two single rail cars with flammables one by one performing a BLEVE. If you had say 4 or 5 tanks cars are mangled together in a derailment, and there was a fire under/around them, one car going BLEVE would cause the others to do so as well.
So if there was a fire, blowing holes to prevent a massive multi car BLEVE was the smart thing to do. However if there was no fire, then not pumping them out is in my view criminal. So there is context to the blanket statement about pumping out tank cars….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BpXPfhyf0o (Raw Video: Massive Explosion In Italy; At Least 2 Dead, 60 Injured) And this was only 4,000 gallons of propane, the Ohio tank cars each carried 30,000 gallons of vinyl chloride which is as or more flammable than propane!
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Herb Rose
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Hi D Boss,
Thanks for the info. I believe the derailment was caused by the brakes on some cars catching fire. I don’t think the slide down the embankment would puncture the cars and since they had time to dig a trench in order to do the burn I doubt there was imminent danger of explosions. It’s not criminal if the government does it.
Herb
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Tom
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Don’t worry…the CDC changed the toxic danger zone from 100ppm to 100,000 ppm and will change it to 10,000,000 ppm…see, no toxicity at all! Government works all the time. They just change the numbers and facts with no scientific basis or clue to get the results they want.
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