The Biden administration lied about the risk of cancer for residents of East Palestine, Ohio after the devastating Norfolk Southern train derailment in 2023, damning new emails reveal.
The crash, which took place on 3 February 2023, released massive amounts of harmful chemicals into the environment, including 115,000 gallons of carcinogenic vinyl chloride, which was deliberately burned by authorities in response to the derailment.
Officials from the Biden administration, including Michael Reagan from the EPA, sought to reassure residents they were “not in danger” from the toxic spill and could return to their homes and drink water from the local supply.
“Since the disaster, EPA has collected more than 100 million air monitoring data points and more than 25 thousand samples in and around the community,” Regan said in a statement in October of 2023.
“This data collection continues, and ongoing science-based reviews show that residents of East Palestine are not in danger from contaminated drinking water, soil, or air from the derailment.”
In private however, officials warned there was a danger of adverse health effects, including cancer, for the residents of the town.
“The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP [East Palestine] is not zero,” FEMA recovery leader James McPherson wrote in an email to other public health officials on 29 March 2024.
“As you all are aware, the first 48 hours of the fire created a really toxic plume,” he said.
The emails also show that one year after the chaos admin officials were still discussing the need to develop a “tripwire to identify cancer clusters.”
The communications were obtained by the Government Accountability Project through freedom of information requests.
The group’s response was scathing.
“They didn’t always test for the right chemicals; they didn’t test in the right locations; they didn’t have the right detection limits,” Government Accountability Project investigator Lesley Pacey told The New York Post, saying the Biden admin wasn’t “worrying about public health” but “public reassurances.”
“They delayed testing for dioxin, and then when they did the testing for dioxin—and also did the testing in people’s homes for other chemicals—they used Norfolk Southern contractors, and those contractors used equipment that wasn’t correct,” said Pacey.
“They completely botched this event from the very beginning.”
Norfolk Southern settled with the Justice Department for $310 million for the damage caused by the derailment.