{"id":32391,"date":"2023-02-17T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T05:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=32391"},"modified":"2023-02-19T12:24:47","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T17:24:47","slug":"train-tragedy-highlights-laws-failure-to-end-use-of-needless-toxic-pesticides-and-co-formulants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2023\/02\/train-tragedy-highlights-laws-failure-to-end-use-of-needless-toxic-pesticides-and-co-formulants\/","title":{"rendered":"Train Tragedy Highlights Law\u2019s Failure to End Use of Needless Toxic Pesticides and Co-formulants"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, February 17, 2023) The February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train<\/a> in Ohio has been huge news. Less well known perhaps is that 20 of the 50 cars involved were carrying hazardous materials, defined by the National Transportation Safety Board as \u201ccargo that could pose any kind of danger \u2018including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.\u2019\u201d The incident resulted in a huge fire, evacuations, and worries about explosions and discharge of toxic chemical gases<\/a>; on February 6, officials conducted \u201ccontrolled releases\u201d of some of the chemicals. Some of the toxic chemicals involved are precursors to production of synthetic pesticides.<\/p>\r\n

[Eds. Note: We are deeply concerned for the victims of this terrible crisis who are asking legitimate questions about contaminated drinking water and the effects of both the initial acute exposure after the derailment, resulting in the release of toxic chemicals, and long-term exposure to low levels of toxic residues in homes and the environment.]<\/p>\r\n

Among the compounds on board those 20 cars were \u201cinert\u201d pesticide ingredients (vinyl chloride<\/a>, ethylhexyl acrylate<\/a>, and isobutylene<\/a>), an antimicrobial compound (ethylene glycol monobutyl ether<\/a> [EGBE]), benzene<\/a> (a carcinogenic solvent), and butyl acrylate<\/a>. This event brings into high relief the cradle-to-grave issues that travel with pesticide (and broad chemical) dependency, including disasters such as this one, and subsequent threats to health and the environment \u2014 which are never part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA\u2019s) calculus in registering pesticides. The Ohio derailment also adds to the case for getting off the toxic pesticide treadmill, which would reduce transport of such compounds.<\/p>\r\n

Air quality readings within a mile of the site were begun soon after the event. Evacuation orders were lifted on February 8 because officials indicated that air quality was safe enough for people to return<\/a> to their homes. The Washington Post<\/em><\/a> reports that environmental officials, as of February 14, were saying that ongoing \u201cair monitoring done for the railroad and by government agencies \u2014 including testing inside nearly 400 homes \u2014 hasn\u2019t detected dangerous levels in the area since\u00a0residents were allowed to return<\/a>. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has\u00a0shared air monitoring results online<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Nevertheless, some residents continue to have concerns<\/a> not only about contaminated air, but about potential contamination of their drinking water; Ohio Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0officials insist the water has been protected and is safe. Yet, others, including Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, delivered a different message<\/a>, leading to heightened confusion and frustration among residents. As The New York Times<\/em><\/a> (NYT<\/em>) reported, \u201cState officials have continued to recommend that some residents drink bottled water as testing continues in private wells, municipal water, and streams, and fears have percolated over the possible dangers of long-term exposure to the chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Understandably, area residents are worried about toxic chemicals<\/a> in their air or water or soils. And as with many concerning public events, social media has spread both sound information and some that is decidedly not. In speaking to The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, one resident summed up what many people are feeling and thinking: \u201cFor a small town, we have to trust them [i.e., officials], because what else do we have to do? We have to trust that they are not lying to us.\u201d The paper quoted Peter DeCarlo, an environmental health professor at Johns Hopkins University: \u201cThe biggest question remaining is what, if anything, is still being released from the site, first and foremost. If there are still residual chemical emissions, then that still presents a danger for people in the area.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Indeed, just prior to publication of this Daily News Blog article, the NYT<\/em> reported<\/a> that hundreds of residents gathered in a school gym on the evening of February 15 for what had been billed as a \u201ctown hall\u201d meeting about the disastrous event. But Norfolk Southern officials failed to show up, and the format was changed to one of state, county, and local agency officials sitting at separate tables around the room and fielding individual questions so that the whole group was not privy to the questions or answers. None of this went over well with the crowd, which was animated in demanding answers to their concerns and angry at railroad officials\u2019 absence; the mayor ultimately switched back to a town hall format.<\/p>\r\n

The NYT <\/em>elaborated:<\/a> \u201cWe have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties,\u2019 a spokesman for the railroad company said, though the nature or origin of the threats was unclear. The spokesman added: \u2018We are not going anywhere. We are committed to East Palestine and will continue to respond to community concerns.\u2019 On Wednesday, that was clearly not enough to satisfy the throngs of people gathered in the gym, who shouted demands to know where the company was. Citing the statement from the company, one man stood up and declared, \u2018We\u2019re scared, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Possibly caused<\/a> by an overheated wheel bearing, the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio (near the Pennsylvania border) has been described by some experts as a potentially huge, unfolding environmental disaster<\/a>, with much about the health and environmental impacts still to be determined via ongoing investigations. The incident looms as even more alarming, given that at least one train derails<\/a> every day in the U.S. Although most trains carry multiple kinds of cargo \u2014 the Norfolk Southern had, e.g., frozen vegetables, autos, and medical cotton balls on board \u2014 they also typically have one or more hazardous materials in tow. According to The Guardian<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> \u201cAbout 4.5m tons of toxic chemicals are shipped by rail each year and an average of 12,000 rail cars carrying hazardous materials pass through cities and towns each day, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.\u201d In 2022, train accidents resulted in releases of hazardous chemicals<\/a> 11 times, down from 20 times in 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\r\n

Perhaps the most-memorable recent rail disaster was the 2013 explosion and fire from 72 rail tankers of petroleum crude oil that erupted in Lac-Megantic, Quebec (near the western Maine border). In that event, 47 people died and 26,000 gallons of oil contaminated the Chaudiere River. Also in 2013, a crude oil train exploded on collision with a derailed train full of grain; luckily, this happened in a relatively unpopulated North Dakota area. 2005 saw the crash, in South Carolina, of a train carrying chlorine gas (a chemical highly poisonous to skin and the respiratory tract).<\/p>\r\n

California\u2019s worst train debacle happened in 1991 near Dunsmuir, when roughly 19,000 gallons of metam sodium<\/a>, a highly toxic pesticide still used as a fungicide and herbicide, flowed into the Sacramento River near the iconic Mt. Shasta. Nearly every living organism in a 38-mile stretch of the river died from the chemical\u2019s toxicity; fortunately, the river and its inhabitants were largely restored within three to four years, according to California Department of Fish and Game spokesperson Mark Stopher<\/a>. These are just a handful of transportation accidents that released toxic chemicals, harming (and sometimes killing) people, and contaminating the environment.<\/p>\r\n

The menu of toxic chemicals on board the Norfolk Southern train was an unsavory one. Of greatest concern has been vinyl chloride<\/a>, a highly flammable compound used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics; when exposed to sunlight, it generates toxic gases, including formaldehyde. When burned, vinyl chloride becomes hydrogen chloride and phosgene; the latter is a deadly gas that was used in World War I chemical warfare, and is used in the manufacture of plastics and pesticides.<\/p>\r\n

To boot, any vinyl chloride that seeped into the trench soil can persist for long periods and continue to volatilize, and can migrate into groundwater. Exposure to it has acute effects on people, and can lead to cardiovascular, developmental, hepatic, and immune problems, and to some nasty cancers. After three rounds of evacuation efforts, the five cars carrying it were breached by emergency responders who discharged the chemical to a trench and burned it.<\/p>\r\n

Northeast University environmental toxicologist Kimberly Garrett explained the extreme concern about phosgene<\/a>: \u201cIt disrupts the interaction between the lungs and the bloodstream. It makes it so oxygen can’t get into the blood and carbon dioxide can’t get out.\u201d The wildlife deaths in the area, including fish, squirrels, turtles, and foxes, were likely caused by phosgene. She added, \u201cThe risk of exploding was so high and the consequences so severe that it’s better to do it under controlled conditions,\u201d and suggested that, because of the potential for long-term effects of vinyl chloride (with its carcinogenic impacts) migrating into groundwater (where it is notoriously difficult to clean up), officials likely opted for one of two bad options \u2014 a controlled burn rather than the explosive and migratory risks of leaving it alone.<\/p>\r\n

Butyl acrylate<\/a> is an explosive and flammable liquid used in manufacturing sealants, adhesives, and paints; it can lead to skin, eye, and respiratory irritation. Ethylhexyl acrylate<\/a> is used similarly, and can cause the same kinds of irritation, as well as gastrointestinal problems if ingested; it is also a potential human carcinogen. Ethylene glycol monobutyl<\/a> ether (EGBE) is neurotoxic; it can lead to irritation of the skin, nose, and throat, damage to red blood cells, hepatic, renal, and reproductive harms, and vomiting after exposure. Isobutylene<\/a> is used in many industrial applications, is highly flammable, and is neurotoxic.<\/p>\r\n

One might reasonably wonder why such dangerous chemicals (some of which are on their way to becoming pesticides) are allowed to be transported by rail through populated areas and vulnerable environments alike. The reality is that this is the chemically dependent state of the world (and for pesticides, of most agriculture and land management). The manufacture of pesticides and plastics (and many other products) requires that toxic chemicals be transported . . . somehow.<\/p>\r\n

Rail has often been considered preferable to (and cheaper than) trucking or flying. Long-haul trains, after all, do much of their travel through non- or less-populated areas, whereas trucks on crowded highways present their own significant safety risks, and planes filled with toxic chemicals would be, more or less, flying bombs (and a very pricey form of transport). In the wake of this tragic derailment, some public health advocates say<\/a> it should be a wake-up call on the potential for far-more-deadly freight rail accidents, particularly in light of the petrochemicals (e.g., ethanol and other fuels) and their chemical derivatives that are transported by rail.<\/p>\r\n

The Guardian<\/em> reports<\/a>, \u201cBy one estimate, 25 million Americans live in an oil train blast zone, and had the derailment occurred just a few miles east, it would be burning in downtown Pittsburgh, with tens of thousands of residents in immediate danger. Ineffective oversight and a largely self-monitoring industry that has cut the nation\u2019s rail workforce to the bone in recent years as it puts\u00a0record profits<\/a>\u00a0over safety is responsible for the wreck, said Ron Kaminkow, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and former Norfolk Southern freight engineer.<\/p>\r\n

\u2018The Palestine wreck is the tip of the iceberg and a red flag,\u2019 said Kaminkow, who is secretary for the Railroad Workers United, a nonprofit labor group that coordinates with the nation\u2019s rail unions. \u2018If something is not done, then it\u2019s going to get worse, and the next derailment could be cataclysmic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n

These toxic chemicals are generally deemed necessary to \u201cmodern life.\u201d But there are, at least for pesticides and their precursor and ingredient compounds, other and better options. One would be for EPA to take into account, in its evaluation of pesticides for registration, the very real cradle-to-grave issues related to pesticide use \u2014 including transportation disasters that seriously threaten health and the environment. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) \u2014 the base federal statute that controls pesticide regulation \u2014 requires that pesticide use<\/a> \u201cwill not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.\u201d The statute defines<\/a> \u201cunreasonable adverse effects,\u201d in part, as \u201cany unreasonable risk to man [sic] or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A protective reading of this statute and definition would cause EPA to evaluate such risks from \u201ccradle to grave,\u201d meaning from the sourcing of chemical ingredients through their manufacture, transportation, use, and ultimate disposal. The disaster in Ohio is a glaring example of EPA\u2019s failure to use a protective and precautionary approach; instead, the agency\u2019s history often shows<\/a> an industry-friendly, conservative reticence to do so.<\/p>\r\n

Another, and far more systemic, effective, and sustainable, way to resolve our toxic chemical morass is known, doable, and scalable: a\u00a0transition to organic, regenerative agricultural practices<\/a>\u00a0that would remove synthetic pesticides and fertilizers \u2014 synthesized from many of the dangerous chemicals that get transported by rail every day \u2014 from the materials stream, as well as curtail their ongoing impacts on human health, the food system, ecosystems and habitats, and the biodiverse living organisms that are so at risk now. Everything we value \u2014 safety, life, health, environment, biodiversity, and more \u2014 demands that we get off this toxic chemical treadmill.<\/p>\r\n

Source: https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2023\/02\/05\/east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Beyond Pesticides, February 17, 2023) The February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in Ohio has been huge news. Less well known perhaps is that 20 of the 50 cars involved were carrying hazardous materials, defined by the National Transportation Safety Board as \u201ccargo that could pose any kind of danger \u2018including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.\u2019\u201d The incident resulted in a huge fire, evacuations, and worries about explosions and discharge of toxic chemical gases; on February 6, officials conducted \u201ccontrolled releases\u201d of some of the chemicals. Some of the toxic chemicals involved are precursors to production of synthetic pesticides. [Eds. Note: We are deeply concerned for the victims of this terrible crisis who are asking legitimate questions about contaminated drinking water and the effects of both the initial acute exposure after the derailment, resulting in the release of toxic chemicals, and long-term exposure to low levels of toxic residues in homes and the environment.] Among the compounds on board those 20 cars were \u201cinert\u201d pesticide ingredients (vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene), an antimicrobial compound (ethylene glycol monobutyl ether [EGBE]), benzene (a carcinogenic solvent), and butyl acrylate. This event brings into high relief the cradle-to-grave issues that travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350,354,621,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contamination-2","category-environmental-protection-agency-epa","category-superfund","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTrain Tragedy Highlights Law\u2019s Failure to End Use of Needless Toxic Pesticides and Co-formulants - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2023\/02\/train-tragedy-highlights-laws-failure-to-end-use-of-needless-toxic-pesticides-and-co-formulants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Train Tragedy Highlights Law\u2019s Failure to End Use of Needless Toxic Pesticides and Co-formulants - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Beyond Pesticides, February 17, 2023) The February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in Ohio has been huge news. Less well known perhaps is that 20 of the 50 cars involved were carrying hazardous materials, defined by the National Transportation Safety Board as \u201ccargo that could pose any kind of danger \u2018including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.\u2019\u201d The incident resulted in a huge fire, evacuations, and worries about explosions and discharge of toxic chemical gases; on February 6, officials conducted \u201ccontrolled releases\u201d of some of the chemicals. Some of the toxic chemicals involved are precursors to production of synthetic pesticides. [Eds. 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The founders, who established Beyond Pesticides (originally as National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) as a nonprofit membership organization in 1981, felt that without the existence of such an organized, national network, local, state and national pesticide policy would become, under chemical industry pressure, increasingly unresponsive to public health and environmental concerns. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. Learn more about our work, read A Year in Review\u20142021, our accomplishments are your victories! Beyond Pesticides seeks to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, we reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. Beyond Pesticides provides hands-on services to the public and supports local action by: identifying and interpreting hazards; and, designing safe pest management programs. With the information provided by Beyond Pesticides, people may not only be able to make informed choices and adopt practices that protect themselves and their families from unnecessary exposure to pesticides, but they will be able to effect changes on community-wide pest management decisions and policies that govern pesticide use, such as pesticide uses in parks, schools, for community insect control and along roadsides. 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Less well known perhaps is that 20 of the 50 cars involved were carrying hazardous materials, defined by the National Transportation Safety Board as \u201ccargo that could pose any kind of danger \u2018including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.\u2019\u201d The incident resulted in a huge fire, evacuations, and worries about explosions and discharge of toxic chemical gases; on February 6, officials conducted \u201ccontrolled releases\u201d of some of the chemicals. Some of the toxic chemicals involved are precursors to production of synthetic pesticides. [Eds. Note: We are deeply concerned for the victims of this terrible crisis who are asking legitimate questions about contaminated drinking water and the effects of both the initial acute exposure after the derailment, resulting in the release of toxic chemicals, and long-term exposure to low levels of toxic residues in homes and the environment.] Among the compounds on board those 20 cars were \u201cinert\u201d pesticide ingredients (vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene), an antimicrobial compound (ethylene glycol monobutyl ether [EGBE]), benzene (a carcinogenic solvent), and butyl acrylate. 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