Ohio U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance wrote a letter to the EPA, calling for them to monitor dioxins in East Palestine and the surrounding areas after the train derailment. Part of their letter sites the EPA, writing, “Dioxins are highly toxic, can interfere with hormones, and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, or damage to the immune system.,” adding, “the combustion of vinyl chloride can lead to the formation of dioxins.”
Vinyl Chloride is a toxic chemical that was released in the controlled burn. According to the EPA, dioxins are “a group of toxic chemical compounds” and in the environment, generally disperse and attach to soil and dust particles, as a result of combustion processes. There is a concern about whether dioxins could be in the village and potentially travel into other communities, following the derailment and controlled explosion.
Kent State University Director of Environmental Studies, Dr. David Kaplan, said in general, dioxins can also get into the water and “almost all aspects of everything that people eat,” but experts said without more data disclosed, they don’t know if there are dioxins in East Palestine from the derailment. Dioxins are known to cause cancer, heart disease, reproductive problems, and much more, and can take a very long time to break down, according to the National Institute of Health.