The Derailment
On February 1, 2023, a train belonging to Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) bearing the designation 32N departed Madison, Illinois en route to Conway, Pennsylvania. The train was 1.76 miles long and consisted of 141 cars. Twenty of those cars were carrying toxic cargo. On February 3 at approximately 8:54 PM EST, a little over 20 miles from 32N’s final destination, a defective wheel bearing on car 23 failed due to critical overheating. That failure resulted in the derailment of 38 railcars in East Palestine, Ohio. Flames had been spotted emanating from car 23 approximately 20 miles prior to the point of derailment. Railcars carrying highly flammable cargo, including approximately 688,000 pounds of polyvinyl, 273,394 pounds of ethylhexyl acrylate, 274,394 pounds of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, and 206,000 pounds of butyl acrylates, were breached. The resulting inferno quickly enveloped an additional 12 cars that were still on the tracks. The fires grew so large that they could be seen on the local weather radar.
The residents of East Palestine, already alarmed by the massive fireball outside of their windows, began to notice unusual odors creeping into their homes. Soon after, residents reported difficulty breathing, burning eyes, nausea, vomiting, and headaches. All of which are typical symptoms of acute toxic exposure. The residents of East Palestine who had not already fled were ordered to evacuate that night.
A Ticking Time Bomb
By February 5th, authorities were able to bring the firestorm somewhat under their control although fires would continue to burn for several more days. Miraculously, the 5 tanker cars containing vinyl chloride which had been caught in the blaze remained intact. However, even after the flames around these cars had been subdued, it was discovered that the temperature inside one of these tanker cars was rapidly increasing. Authorities assessed that the elevated temperatures from the fire had triggered a chemical reaction in the vinyl chloride within this car. If left unchecked, it was projected that the temperature, and hence the pressure, inside of the car would continue to rise. Unless the pressure was alleviated, it would inevitably result in a catastrophic explosion.
Of course, railcars such as the five that were carrying vinyl chloride on NS Train 32N, are fitted with special pressure relief valves. These valves are mandated by law in order to avert disasters in situations precisely such as this one. However, it was at this critical juncture that Norfolk Southern discovered that the pressure relief valve on the car containing the chemically active vinyl chloride was also defective. Now realizing that they were dealing with a literal time bomb, Norfolk Southern and government authorities scrambled to diffuse it.
Modeling conducted by the Ohio National Guard and the U.S. Department of Defense projected that if the explosion were to occur, it might have sufficient force to hurl lethal chunks of shrapnel as far as a mile away. In response, on February 6th the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania ordered an immediate evacuation of all residents within a 1-mile by 2-mile area surrounding East Palestine, and mass casualty crews were called up in anticipation of the possible explosion.
In order to eliminate the risk of an explosion, NS employees punched holes into all 5 of the cars that contained vinyl chloride and drained approximately a million pounds of the cancer-causing chemical into a nearby trench. In a single day, Norfolk Southern emitted more vinyl chloride into the environment than every polluter in the US combined in 2021. An official would later state that the car which was carrying the chemically-active vinyl chloride was 15 degrees from the point of explosion.
The “Controlled Release”
An explosive calamity was averted; however, the 500 tons of vinyl chloride lying in a shallow trench adjacent to a creek still needed to be dealt with. Rather than remove the chemical from the site, NS advocated that the best way to deal with it was to conduct a “controlled release.” Local officials agreed. NS then set the vinyl chloride on fire. Since then, there have been dozens of lawsuits filed against NS. Many of them have alleged that NS’s insistence on performing a “controlled burn” was motivated by a desire to get the mainline track back in operation as quickly as possible.
Regardless of what NS’s motivations were, it would have been obvious to NS that a complete burn of the vinyl chloride in these conditions was impossible. It was inevitable that NS’s “controlled release” of the vinyl chloride would yield incredibly dangerous emissions such as dioxins, hydrogen chloride, and phosgene gas (best known for its use as a chemical weapon in the trenches of WW1) which the residents of East Palestine will now have to live with.
Scientists for Hire
Less than 48 hours after the burn-off began, the evacuation order was lifted and residents were told that it was safe to return to their homes. To ease residents’ concerns Norfolk Southern had its private contractor, CTEH, on-site to perform air testing in the homes of the residents of East Palestine. CTEH is a for-profit environmental consultant that was founded in the 90s by a group of scientists who had made their livings by testifying in court on behalf of tobacco companies. Since then, CTEH has become the contractor of choice for major corporations seeking to avoid liability for exposing the public or their employees to harmful toxins. Over the years, CTEH has been accused of manipulating test results to benefit its corporate clientele on multiple occasions.
Many East Palestine residents made the decision to return to their homes based on the testing performed by CTEH. They were told their homes were safe and that the testing had not detected anything of concern. However, experts have questioned whether the tests that CTEH was performing were even capable of detecting any of the toxins which one would expect to be in the air at that time. CTEH’s testing was designed to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Vinyl Chloride is a volatile organic compound. However, many of the chemicals emitted by the burning of vinyl chloride (including phosgene and dioxins) are not volatile organic compounds.
East Palestine “Grossly Contaminated”
Despite CTEH’s claims that there was nothing to worry about, there was clearly something in East Palestine that was making its residents fall sick. Following the derailment, the Ohio Department of Health has for several weeks been surveying the health symptoms experienced by East Palestine residents. As of March 29, 2020, 534 residents had been surveyed. The top four symptoms reported were:
- Headache – 74.5%
- Anxiety – 61.4%
- Coughing – 53.0%
- Irritation/Pain/burning eyes – 49.8%
The problem was so apparent that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sent a team of investigators to East Palestine to evaluate the health of residents. On March 6, more than a month after the derailment, seven of the CDC investigators subsequently fell ill themselves. In fact, they reported experiencing the exact symptoms (sore throat, headache, coughing, and nausea) that they had been sent to look into.
Today, it is expected that whatever may have been in the air in East Palestine will have largely dissipated. However, that does not mean these chemicals have disappeared. Far from it. They have merely settled into the ground and water surrounding East Palestine. Testing has revealed that soil and water in East Palestine was “grossly contaminated.” A fact that is best demonstrated by the deaths of over 43,000 aquatic animals in the aftermath of the derailment. While a cleanup is now underway, it’s not clear that the damage can ever really be undone. Dioxins, for example, are often referred to as “forever chemicals,” because once they’ve made their way into the ground their half-life can be decades-long. Many dioxins are classified as Group 1 carcinogens (i.e. known carcinogens) and soil testing performed in March has revealed that the soil in East Palestine contains dioxin levels that are hundreds of times greater than the exposure threshold which EPA scientists in 2010 found poses cancer risks.
Profit First, Safety Last
Frankly, the events that occurred in East Palestine were horrendous. However, for those that are familiar with Norfolk Southern and the railroad industry at large, none of it was surprising. For the railroads, keeping the trains rolling takes precedence over everything else. More so now than ever before. Today, almost every Class I railroad employs a practice known as “precision-scheduled railroading” (PSR). The railroads say that PSR is about improving transport efficiency and the precise scheduling of trains. According to the conductors, trackmen, carmen, and shop workers who witness its effects every day, the only “efficiency” goal that railroad management cares about is lowering their operating ratio. An operating ratio is a simple measure of how many cents a company has to spend in order to make a dollar. Twenty years ago, NS’s operating ratio was around 80% meaning that they needed to spend $0.80 in order to make $1.00. Today, with PSR, NS’s goal is to reduce the operating ratio below 60%. Achieving this result means cutting costs at the expense of everything else, safety included.
The introduction of PSR has had dramatic effects on the railroad industry. Total employment at North American Class 1 railroads has dropped by over 25%. The sharp drop in manpower has resulted in cascading deferred maintenance, rushed inspections, and cutting corners on repairs. Even with 12+ hour shifts being a fact of life throughout the industry today, there simply isn’t enough manpower to do the job. To make matters worse, PSR has also resulted in the length of trains getting longer and longer. The longer trains put more stress on the tracks and machinery which in turn increases the need for maintenance. According to the maintenance of way workers on the ground, for example, the tracks are in the worst shape they have ever been in living memory.
Some of the changes implemented as a result of PSR may have even directly contributed to the events in East Palestine. For example, in the early 2000s, the generally accepted amount of time a carman needed to expect a railcar before it went out on a haul was about 4 minutes. In some cases a proper inspection might take up to 8 minutes. That was how long it took a seasoned carman to do the job correctly. With the advent of PSR, railroad management began to limit the amount of time car inspectors could spend on each car. Over time, the limit got lower and lower. Spending less time inspecting the cars means less time the train spends sitting on the tracks, and that translates into less operating expenses for the railroad. Today NS requires that carmen spend no more than 1 minute inspecting each car. Employees who fail to meet the goals set by management are disciplined. However, the railcars are no different than they were 20 years ago. That means that the carman who inspected car 23 on train 32N prior to the derailment in East Palestine may have only been able to spend a quarter of the time that was actually needed to determine if the car was defective.
The railroad industry’s prioritization of profits over safety was put into the public eye by a poisonous firestorm in East Palestine. However, the railroads’ indifference to safety is not new. It has been systemic in the industry for decades. The railroads have exposed countless individuals to toxic chemicals over the years. Namely their own workers. Hughes Law Offices is a law firm dedicated to helping the many railroad workers who have endured years of exposures to diesel exhaust, asbestos, solvents, creosote, second-hand smoke, and many other toxins found in the railroads’ shops, locomotives, yards, and main lines. If you or a loved one worked for a railroad and has received an illness related to your exposures, all 312-877-5588 today for a free attorney consultation.
