East Palestine, Ohio, Railroad Derailment—Lessons to Learn, Actions to Take

East Palestine, Ohio, is the latest example of the creation of a preventable long-term health hazard for people and the planet.

On the evening of Friday, February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern Railroad freight train hauling 150 cars partly derailed in East Palestine because of wheel-bearing overheating. Some of the derailed cars spilled hazardous materials and sparked a fire that burned for days. On February 6, local residents were evacuated before Norfolk Southern Railroad undertook a controlled burn-off because of concerns that five of the derailed cars, which contained vinyl chloride, might explode. Vinyl chloride was released into a trough and set alight, generating a large pewter-colored plume of smoke that included phosgene and hydrogen chloride.

Currently, we do not know exactly what other chemical mixtures were released, although dioxin has been found. However, we do know that vinyl chloride is associated with an increased risk of hepatic angiosarcoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia. Phosgene was used as a chemical weapon in World War I to destroy soldiers’ lungs, and dioxins are classified as a group 1 carcinogen that can affect male fertility. Dioxin can induce cancer years later, particularly in those exposed as babies or children and those heavily exposed, such as first responders.

It is imperative to rapidly evaluate exposures and establish a registry of people near the derailment. In addition to establishing full corporate accountability for the long-term health consequences to the surrounding community, we need to ensure that regulatory processes prevent any recurrence.

The train derailment at East Palestine was not inevitable; approximately 1000 derailments were reported in the United States during 2022 alone.¹ Train accidents are more common in the United States than in comparable countries despite fewer passenger miles and less freight transported.² The risk for train derailment and its consequences should have been avoided by better supervision and regulation by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), respectively. The key issue is in whose interests these governmental bodies are acting. It is easy to assume that their only concern is to keep the public safe.

The United States has strong inequities in power, with wealthy individuals and corporations advocating deregulation in their own interests. Government agencies can be portrayed as overbearing and ineffective purveyors of “red tape” that stifles innovation, which adds fuel to a bonfire of regulations potentially leaving the rest of us at risk. Norfolk Southern Railroad was lobbying against “regulatory burdens,” while advertising that “safety is a way of life and one of our guiding principles.”³ For example, a rule concerning advanced train braking technology was recently removed. Although this regulation may not have prevented the disaster in East Palestine, this type of deregulation indicates the direction of travel regulations. The US train industry has become increasingly less regulated over the past 40 years.⁴

The problem of how to regulate the regulators has been recognized since governments began using regulations to control behavior and was first articulated by the Roman poet Juvenal two millennia ago: “Who watches the watchers?”⁵ Regulatory capture can undermine regulators if they act in the interests of the regulated industry rather than the public. Almost inevitably, vested interests win out over the public good, because they have more resources to influence regulators than the public. Alliances between industry representatives and regulators form over time, as personal relationships develop and opportunities arise to engage in conversations that modify the regulators’ ability to enforce standards and question practices.

Often, when industries want to change the focus from harms to benefits to the public, they offer community services and incentives, such as creating parks and other recreational attractions. Northern Suffolk Railroad has proposed improvements to East Palestine Park.⁶ This activity can distract the public from the harms of industry practices.

By contrast, it is time consuming and difficult for advocacy organizations and scientists to obtain information and track events on an ongoing basis to ensure that regulations are developed and enforced and that data are collected to evaluate health consequences. However, a well-funded, well-staffed, transparent, independent regulator operating with clear principles, including a remit to serve the public, could do so and should be less open to regulatory capture⁷; however, such a regulator could be undermined by political appointments and processes.

Recently, regulatory capture at the EPA was documented and was predicted to reduce the EPA’s ability “to confront polluting industries and promote public and environmental health.”⁸ It was also expected to have health consequences that “will likely fall hardest on vulnerable social groups, such as low-income communities, farmworkers and first responders,”^8(pS93) as seen in East Palestine.

Taken together, regulatory capture and vested interests generate a “doom loop.” Regulatory capture results in public agencies acting against the public interest and in the interests of capital gain by heads of industry, which promotes distrust and lack of support for the very institutions, such as the EPA, that are intended to promote the public interest. Vested interests siphon wealth to the rich, leaving less money for regulatory control and more risk to be suffered by everyone else, and hence more regulatory failure.

More monitoring of wheel bearings, removal of loose wheels, better braking technologies, more safety inspections, more staff, and less precision-scheduled railroading, and hence shorter trains, have all been suggested as ways of making the railroads safer. East Palestine was unlucky enough to be where a preventable environmental disaster occurred as a result of the current deregulated system. This event should serve as a wake-up call for us to act together to demand regulatory independence that acts in the public interest—the lives of our loved ones and the planet are at stake.

In this context of regulatory capture, the decision to have the controlled burn-off in East Palestine needs to be reviewed and the EPA appointment of Norfolk Southern Railroad to lead the cleanup rescinded. It is completely inappropriate for Norfolk Southern Railroad to be involved in the cleanup, as they obviously have a vested interest in minimizing the reporting of hazards, as illustrated by concerns about one of their contractors.⁹ The EPA has appointed the fox to mind the hen house.

An independent body needs to be established that has a much wider remit than the EPA’s cleanup. First, the exposures need to be characterized, the plume reconstructed, and the exposed populations of East Palestine, and elsewhere, enumerated for registry construction. Epidemiologists and community health professionals have the skills to establish such a registry and to conduct long-term monitoring, building on the Assessment of Chemical Exposure survey.¹⁰

Second, those affected need to be provided with monitoring to characterize health outcomes over time, as was done after 9/11 in New York City. Third, carcinogen exposures take time to result in detectable cancers, so East Palestine residents need guaranteed medical care into the future. All these activities must be implemented independent of but at the expense of Norfolk Southern Railroad. In this context, the refusal of Norfolk Southern Railroad to commit to long-term support for East Palestine is completely unacceptable.

Finally, we need to go back to the root causes of this accident in East Palestine and address them as well. First, we must reduce our reliance on hazardous chemicals and minimize their transport. Second, we need to treat the railways as a common good, like roads, which are run safely for the benefit of everyone. Third, we need watchdogs to identify, report, and combat regulatory capture. Fourth, we, as public health professionals, need to fight against regulatory capture and vested interests, do everything we can to address the situation in East Palestine, and ensure that such environmental disasters never recur. Taken together these actions should obviate the doom loop of regulatory capture and vested interests and create a healthier society and environment in the United States for everyone.