Communities around US grapple with toxic chemical exposure: Report

Environmentalists in the US are calling on the Joe Biden administration to take concrete measures to stop the spread of toxic chemicals by plastic industries after the devastating fallout of the train derailment in Ohio in February.

According to reports in the US media, environmentalists in the country have stepped up their fight against industrial pollution after the Ohio incident as communities across the country grapple with toxic chemical exposure. 

While an incident in East Palestine, Ohio, when a train carrying more than 100 oil tankers derailed and crashed into a gas station causing an explosion and fire, shone a spotlight on the problem, environmentalists fear such incidents can repeat anywhere in the country.

The US government needs to pay more attention to the pollutants released in the environment, activist Shamell Lavigne with local environmental justice organization Rise St. James, which operates in the Louisiana state’s notorious “Cancer Alley”, was reported as saying by The Hill on Sunday.

The infamous “Cancer Alley” is an industrial corridor where residents are regularly exposed to a range of toxic substances. Residents there face a risk of developing cancer about 51 percent higher than the average in the country, according to a 2012 study.

Lavigne said the situation in other parts of the country also needed attention, pointing out that “Cancer Alley” in particular deserved attention. 

Train derailment sparks massive explosion in Ohio

A train derailment in eastern Ohio has caused a massive fire and explosions that lit up the skies for miles and forced several residents to be evacuated, according to officials.

She said her area is home to many different chemicals that her organization launched a “chemical of the month” education campaign to tell the community about the negative impacts of each one. 

“Right now the chemical of the month is chloroprene, next month it’ll be vinyl chloride,” Lavigne said in March, adding that the campaign had been ongoing since September.

Environmentalists complain that while government measures in fighting dangerous pollutants had proven too little, some changes were coming about.

Lavigne said the local Environmental Protection  Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan had recently visited Louisiana’s St. John the Baptist Parish, which includes part of Cancer Alley, to announce a proposal that aims to cut down on how much of these chemicals plants are allowed to emit. 

The chemicals targeted by the rule include carcinogens such as vinyl chloride, ethylene oxide and benzene.

Environmental activists applauded the move as an important step forward. But some still say more action is needed to address the problems of industrial pollution. 

“With EPA’s proposals today, we are finally seeing a step in the right direction, but there is still much work to be done,” said a written statement from Sierra Club Healthy Communities Campaign Director Pedro Cruz. 

“Now, we must continue to demand that all illegal exemptions be removed from federal air quality rules to truly prioritize the health and safety of our communities over the corporate profits,” Cruz said. 

However, the American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemicals firms and industry, expressed concerns about how the rule might affect business, saying the EPA “may be rushing its work on significant rulemaking packages that reach across multiple source categories and could set important precedents.”

Earlier this year, a group of 24 Republican-led states lodged a complaint against the EPA to try to knock down a rule governing which waters get federal protections. 

Announcing their new assault on the environment, the Republican attorneys general claimed that the rule issues protections too liberally and that it could end up harming ranchers, farmers, miners, homebuilders and other landowners.

“You cannot regulate a puddle as you do a river and doing so will never give us cleaner water,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a statement at the time. 

“This rule would harm jobs and economic growth by taking jurisdiction from states and asserting federal authority over nearly any body of water, including roadside ditches, short-lived streams and many other areas where water may flow only once every 100 years,” he argued. 

Ohio chemical spill: EPA failed to sample dioxins at train derailment site

Nearly a month after a train crashed and exploded, spewing toxic chemicals into the environment around East Palestine, Ohio, the US (EPA) has not test the toxic pollutants that could have been released into the air, soil and water, the Guardian report revealed.

West Virginia, Georgia, Iowa, North Dakota, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming, were the Republican states that signed the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Ohio train derailment has prompted activists to urge authorities for the elimination of vinyl chloride and PVC plastics.

“The production of vinyl chloride in states like Louisiana and Texas is a major problem,” said Judith Enck, president of the group Beyond Plastics and a former regional EPA administrator.

“Vinyl chloride is toxic every step of the way, when you produce it, when you transport it, when you use it, and when you dispose of it,” Enck said, adding that her group would like to see a ban of the chemical.

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