(NewsNation) — More than a year after a Norfolk Southern train derailed near the town of East Palestine, Ohio, residents say they are still struggling to get accurate information about toxic chemicals in the air in and around their homes.
After officials burned 116,000 gallons of toxic vinyl chloride, releasing a plume over the town, the messaging from the Environmental Protection Agency has been consistent. They found no threat of exposure to residents from vinyl chloride.
“Since the fire went out, EPA air monitoring has not detected any levels of chemicals of health concern that are attributed to the train derailment,” said EPA Administrator Michael Reagan. “EPA has assisted with the screening of more than 480 homes under the voluntary screening program offered to residents and no detection of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride were identified. But we are continuing to have those indoor air screenings available to any resident who wants their air tested.”
Residents were evacuated during the controlled burn but were told it was safe to return home shortly after.
“As of March 4, approximately 600 homes have been screened through this program and no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride have been identified,” said Debra Shore, EPA Region 5 administrator, a month after the derailment.
Last June, NewsNation asked the EPA about vinyl chloride in the community and was told that monitoring done since the evacuation had shown no evidence of sustained vinyl chloride exposure in the community.
Rainbow colored sheen at Leslie Run near East Palestine, Ohio 
Katie Smith – NewsNation Scott Smith, chief sustainability officer at ECO Integrated Technologies, Inc., tests a furnace filter outside an East Palestine, Ohio home Tuesday, May 16, 2023. 
When East Palestine resident Katlyn Schwarzwaelder and her boyfriend Chris went back home, she broke out in a rash all over her face, neck and chest almost instantly, and also got what she called a “really low-grade, constant headache.” Chris had a rash on his left side. They lived nearly a mile away from the train derailment site. In March 2023, a team of independent testers from Purdue University tested the environment in East Palestine and found it contained “acute health risks.” That same month, fellow residents Chris and Jamie Wallace told NewsNation that members of their family were diagnosed with upper respiratory infections. Another resident, Jon Kent, said he started having seizures a few months after the derailment. 
Chemical expert reacts to East Palestine creek video 
FILE – A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) 
FILE – Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night before burn in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023. The White House says President Joe Biden will visit the eastern Ohio community that was devastated by a fiery train derailment in February 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) 
FILE – A view of the scene Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, as the cleanup continues at the site of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that happened on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. Norfolk Southern alone will be responsible for paying for the cleanup after last year’s fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio, a federal judge ruled, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File) 
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, center, meets with Ohio EPA officials in East Palestine, Ohio. (NewsNation) 
A warning sign is posted near a stream in East Palestine Park in East Palestine, Ohio on Thursday, June 22, 2023. An investigative hearing is being held by the National Transportation and Safety Board in East Palestine over two days, to investigate the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment and subsequent hazardous material release and fires. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) 
A tank car sits on a trailer as the cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed over a week ago continues in East Palestine, Ohio, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) 
Work continues to clean and replace fill dirt at the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. Daily life largely returned to normal for residents of East Palestine, Ohio, months after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and spilled a cocktail of hazardous chemicals that caught fire a year ago, but the worries and fears are always there. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
But residents have told a different story.
Jess Conard said she has been begging to have the air inside her home tested.
“We had persistently asked federal authorities to complete a robust indoor air monitoring program and it seems to be falling on deaf ears,” she said. “Everybody really does want their air tested.”
In February, she decided to pay an independent group out of her own pocket for testing instead.
Edelweiss Technology Solutions set up air monitoring for 24 hours inside and outside of her home.
Acrolein, benzene, ethanol, ethyl acetate, styrene, toluene and vinyl chloride were all detected.
Edelweiss found high levels of acrolein inside her home, the report stating the chemical was identified to have the largest potential for health impacts during an independent assessment of the town done in February of 2023.
The group also detected vinyl chloride outside her home, in the ambient air on her porch. A technical fact sheet from the EPA states that if vinyl chloride is released into the atmosphere “it can be expected to exist mainly in the vapor phase in the ambient atmosphere and to degrade rapidly in air by gas phase reaction with photochemically produced hydroxyl radicals with an estimated half-life of 1.5 days.”
“It says estimated half-life of 1.5 days, this implies that there needs to be a source that is currently emitting vinyl chloride into the air in the vicinity of the residence,” Conard said.
As shocking as that sounds, Conard told NewsNation it lines up with what people in the area have been saying for months.
“We’ve been sick, we’ve had these illnesses that no one is keeping track of,” she said. “We have no organized medical response here and we’re being told that it’s because we’re stressed or because of allergies or pink eye. But there is, a year later, still vinyl chloride lingering around East Palestine and this is two miles out. This is a year later.”
The report from Edelweiss concluded that the spread of concentrations of chemicals found in Conard’s home and outdoor air “indicate a source outdoors for acrolein and vinyl chloride but with an unknown location.”
For residents, the battle to find out what may be lingering in the air and water has been a long one.
“We’ve been doing this for over a year now. It’s exhausting,” Conard said. “Why do we still have vinyl chloride in the air? Who is emitting? What is emitting vinyl chloride? Is it the creeks? Is it the train?”
NewsNation asked the EPA about the issue last month.
They said the “EPA has not seen this data or associated work plans. Please have the property owner reach out to us.”
Recently, Conard did meet and share her results with the EPA’s Mark Durno. She tells NewsNation he said this does “raise a red flag” to do more testing.
The EPA sent NewsNation this statement Wednesday: “EPA continues to have conversations with residents who have concerns. Over the course of the response, EPA has collected over 115 million air monitoring data points and over 28,000 air samples. Since the evacuation was lifted, no sustained chemicals of concern have been found in the air.”
