East Palestine train derailment - How it affects you

[BrandonHall10]

Here we are, a couple weeks out from the disaster in East Palestine. A disaster some are calling "Chernobyl 2.0." I've had time to think about this. Obviously the residents will have to deal directly with devastating health effects and environmental problems for an unknown amount of time, but it also affects the rest of us.

My personal takeaway... I'm going to have a real hard time caring about the emissions systems on my motor vehicles after seeing 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride spilled then subsequently LIT ON FIRE.

 

[QUICKSILVER462]

The disaster in Ohio is of course devastating, and I am not trying down play the disaster either, but E.P. Ohio is no where near even close to what happened at Chernobyl. I mean, this is not even the same topic, chemicals vs atomic radiation.

 

[SgtMarshal]

passenger car's and trucks contribute such a small amount of carbon to the environment that they only reason I can see that they are so heavily regulated is so the authority's that be have that much more power over us "peons." If "they" were actually interested in protecting the environment, we would not be buying oil from the other side of the world, billionaires such as bill gates would not gallivant around the world in a private jet, and prevention of forest wildfires would be much higher in priority. I am confident that plastic would be banned from production.

there are probably many more things that would be in effect that I am ignorant of.

 

[SgtMarshal]

who cares what the pollution is, the lesser of two evils is still evil.

 

[ItHurtz]

anything I have learned is dont look at the train derailments, find out what they are trying to hide from you. classic "oh a shiny penny"

 

[Iceman6669]

Ive heard of folks like 80~ miles away having a soapy residue in their ground water from this.... I guess its some kinda soapy foam they use to put the fire out finally or clean it up or some jazz...

 

[Lanns24]

I live about 30 miles NE of EP in PA. Although I know there is a lot of local news about the event on a daily basis, personally, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary here or heard of anyone becoming ill. I rarely, if ever, watch TV and only casually stay informed what's going on in the news media. Anyway, most people I know around here stopped discussing the event after a couple of weeks. From what I know, the toxic cloud in EP moved SW to the mid-interior of OH, while the toxic chemicals went into the groundwater and nearby waterways that connect directly to the Ohio River, which from there flows south and then SW forming a significant portion of the state lines of OH, KY, WV, IN, and IL. Although the Ohio river begins in Pittsburgh, it mainly flows in a western direction from there, making it unlikely that all but a small and sparsely populated portion of PA that borders EP would be affected. I travel to OH frequently and the EP train derailment and its aftermath is much more discussed among the general public there.

Although this event made national and international news, trail derailments and toxic spills are nothing new for this region. What's different about this one is its size, the toxicity of chemicals involved, the explosions and toxic cloud, and the fact that it occurred in a populated area.