{"id":1108,"date":"2023-03-03T10:28:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T15:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2023-03-03T10:29:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T15:29:09","slug":"epa-orders-testing-at-ohio-derailment-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/education\/epa-orders-testing-at-ohio-derailment-site\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA orders testing for dioxins at Ohio derailment site"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"teaser-content grid-center\">\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-testid=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\">After weeks of questions about contamination associated with a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered rail company Norfolk Southern to test the area for dioxins, a dangerous and persistent class of pollutants created when plastic is burned. The train that crashed there Feb. 3 was carrying chemicals used to make plastics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-testid=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\">A chorus of academics, environmentalists and residents have been raising the alarm about potential dioxin contamination because, days after the derailment, authorities seeking to avoid an explosion purposefully released and burned the chemical vinyl chloride, a key component of PVC plastic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-testid=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\">While EPA officials said monitoring for related chemicals around East Palestine suggests a \u201clow probability\u201d of dioxin contamination, Administrator Michael Regan said the agency is directing the railroad to conduct testing for the pollutants based on concerns from the community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-testid=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\">EPA will oversee the testing and \u201cdirect the company to conduct immediate clean up if contaminants from the derailment are found at levels that jeopardize people\u2019s health,\u201d Regan said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-testid=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\">\u201cOver the last few weeks, I\u2019ve sat with East Palestine residents and community leaders in their homes, businesses, churches, and schools. I\u2019ve heard their fears and concerns directly, and I\u2019ve pledged that these experiences would inform EPA\u2019s ongoing response efforts,\u201d the EPA administrator added.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"null\" data-testid=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\"><em>Read more from Scott Dance of The Washington Post<\/em>:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-environment\/2023\/03\/02\/east-palestine-ohio-derailment-dioxins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-environment\/2023\/03\/02\/east-palestine-ohio-derailment-dioxins\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of questions about contamination associated with a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered rail company Norfolk Southern to test the area for dioxins, a dangerous and persistent class of pollutants created when plastic is burned. The train that crashed there Feb. 3 was carrying chemicals used&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1865,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1865"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1110,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}