The rumors continue to grow. More than ten days after the derailment of the Norfolk Southern Railways train containing toxic chemicals, which occurred on February 3, the inhabitants of the city of East Palestine, Ohio are anxious. Some claim to see schools of fish dying in the waterways at the foot of their homes. Others speak of a lingering chemical smell. 3,500 fish belonging to twelve different species were discovered dead, the authorities finally announced. “I’m scared for my family, I’m scared for my town,” resident Kelly Felger told US television. CNN.
The small town of 4,700 inhabitants is concerned about the rejection of vinyl chloride, a highly flammable carcinogenic substance used in the manufacture of plastic, yet regulated by the authorities. If the authorities do not stop trying to reassure on the absence of immediate danger, skepticism grows and the affair takes a national turn. The administration of Joe Biden being forced to react: “We are going to shed all the light” on what happened, assured Washington the spokesperson for the American president, Karine Jean-Pierre, asking the railway company to “accountable”. This should not dissipate the wind of panic skillfully fed by many media close to the conspiracy movement.
Dark clouds and conspiracy
On social networks, the superlatives pile up. “The most serious ecological disaster in history”, can we read or “Chernobyl 2.0”, as written by the New York Times on its website. These reactions are maintained by the editorials of the ultra-right which multiply the insinuations on the presumed complicity of the authorities: “Planned attack, concealment or both?” wondered the “Conservative Daily Podcast”, a far-right program. At the same time, “the hashtag #OhioChernobyl is spreading on the Internet”, underlines the New York daily. The message even spread on the set of the national channel Fox News where the host, Jesse Watters, quipped: “The city of Ohio looks like Chernobyl.”
If the accusation turns out to be viral, it is primarily because the conspiracy theorists use the intervention of the authorities, a few hours after the accident, to maintain the scent of the plot. Fearing an explosion of fuel inside the cars, the authorities ordered, on February 3, the evacuation of residents in order to carry out a “controlled” release of vinyl chloride. A controlled burn that released wisps of toxic smoke for several hours, visible for miles.
The decision was strongly criticized at the town meeting on Wednesday. Trent R. Conaway, the mayor of the town justified himself: “There were two options: either we blow it up or it blows up on its own.” If the authorities have since invited the inhabitants to take back possession of East Palestine, the images of the black clouds wandering above the city feed fear. The inhabitants fear in particular the contamination of water.
An environmental disaster
On Tuesday, Tiffani Kavalec, chief of the surface water service of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, did not rule out the fact that two chemical contaminants were found in some tributaries of the river. Water treatment processes, however, filter out contaminants, she insisted. Thursday, at 8:30 am, the authorities have the green light to again consume water from the municipal network. The authorities, on the other hand, advise people using water from private wells to have it tested. Since vinyl chloride is a volatile substance, the air should be relatively spared, according to the expertise of scientists collected by The Parisian.
Authorities are walking on eggshells, however, warning that airborne contaminants can still settle on soil and water surfaces. Vinyl chloride, sadly known to reach organs such as the liver, the brain, or even the lung, is responsible for many cancers. The consequences of such a phenomenon are not yet known in their entirety, but the accident is also an environmental disaster as underlined by the US Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) speaking of “disaster”.