President Joe Biden understands the devastating dangers of poisonous chemical compounds. “It’s private,” he mentioned in August 2022, earlier than signing into legislation a invoice to broaden well being care advantages for veterans uncovered to poisonous burn pits throughout deployments abroad.
“Poisonous smoke, thick with poison, spreading via the air and into the lungs of our troops,” Biden mentioned. “Once they got here house, lots of the fittest and finest warriors that we despatched to battle weren’t the identical — complications, numbness, dizziness, most cancers. My son Beau was one among them.”
Biden’s oldest son died of mind most cancers in 2015. The president has speculated that his son’s most cancers was attributable to publicity to poisonous chemical compounds from burn pits throughout his army service in Iraq.
In the identical vein, the White Home has prioritized lowering chemical air pollution in communities throughout the nation, touting an “bold” agenda to guard public well being and advance environmental justice.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Safety Company moved to crack down on the continuing follow of open burning of hazardous waste explosives, primarily army munitions, to cut back chemical exposures and higher shield human well being and the setting. In December, the EPA started the method of formally evaluating the dangers of 5 particular chemical compounds, together with vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing chemical used to make plastic. And in April, the EPA launched a draft nationwide technique to fight plastic air pollution, together with lowering publicity to dangerous chemical compounds launched throughout manufacturing.
A lot of the administration’s work on poisonous substances falls beneath the umbrella of Biden’s Most cancers Moonshot initiative, which goals to cut back the most cancers demise charge by 50% over the following 25 years.
However one incident casts a protracted shadow over the administration’s combat towards poisonous chemical exposures: final yr’s derailment of a Norfolk Southern practice in East Palestine, Ohio. The administration has been extensively criticized by specialists — together with some from the EPA — for not stepping in to forestall the railroad large from deliberately torching greater than 1 million kilos of vinyl chloride, and for ready weeks to check for dioxins, a household of extraordinarily poisonous compounds which can be identified to kind when chlorinated chemical compounds like vinyl chloride combust.
Gene J. Puskar by way of Related Press
The so-called managed burn, which Norfolk Southern instructed federal and state responders was the one out there possibility to forestall a probably catastrophic explosion of chemical tanker automobiles, launched thick black plumes of noxious smoke and uncovered residents to probably dozens of various chemical compounds. The EPA has distanced itself from the burn resolution, telling HuffPost that whereas the company was current throughout advert hoc conferences main as much as the burn, it didn’t log off on and was not consulted in regards to the resolution. The administration has vowed to make use of “each out there instrument to carry Norfolk Southern accountable” for the incident.
When Biden traveled to East Palestine final month to mark the one-year anniversary of the derailment, he described the chemical catastrophe as “an act of greed” on the a part of Norfolk Southern that “was 100% preventable.” And he touted the federal response and restoration efforts as “Herculean.”
Many impacted residents and unbiased specialists would agree that the catastrophe was preventable. The chair of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board lately testified earlier than Congress that the choice to vent and burn tanker automobiles might have been prevented, as there was no signal of an imminent explosion of vinyl chloride automobiles.
However “Herculean” shouldn’t be what number of shut observers, together with former EPA officers and unbiased scientists, would describe the federal response in Ohio.
Stephen Lester, a toxicologist and the science director for the Middle for Well being, Surroundings and Justice, beforehand instructed HuffPost that the EPA’s dealing with of the state of affairs is “as dangerous as I’ve ever seen them be” over his greater than 40 years of engaged on contaminated websites. Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator, lately assailed the company for not stopping Norfolk Southern from venting and burning vinyl chloride, saying that the EPA “sat idly by when a significant dangerous resolution was made.”
![President Joe Biden speaks after receiving an operational briefing from officials on the continuing response and recovery efforts at the site of last year's train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/65fdb663230000aa286574e2.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
MANDEL NGAN by way of Getty Pictures
A lot of the frustration and mistrust stems from the early days of the response. Together with not intervening to forestall the chemical burn, the EPA dragged its toes on sampling for dioxins and didn’t seek the advice of sure related EPA specialists, together with a high dioxin professional, till a month after the derailment, as HuffPost beforehand reported. In the meantime, it has repeatedly assured the group that in depth monitoring exhibits the air, water and soil are secure, regardless of the little that scientists perceive in regards to the dangers of publicity to a number of chemical compounds directly and regardless of residents persevering with to report a wide range of ongoing well being signs.
The open burning and open detonation of poisonous chemical compounds have been banned in the US since 1980 on account of well-established dangers to human well being and the setting. The one exception is for waste explosives that can’t in any other case be safely disposed of.
Final week, the EPA introduced a proposed rule to curb the continuing follow of burning waste explosives by establishing stricter enforcement necessities and pushing services to make use of safer options. EPA Administrator Michael Regan mentioned in an announcement accompanying the announcement that open burning “can have severe environmental and public well being impacts, oftentimes in communities already overburdened by air pollution,” and that the proposed rule “will work to higher shield native communities from environmental and well being hurt.”
To be clear, the Ohio practice derailment didn’t contain waste explosives. Nonetheless, Jami Wallace, a lifelong resident of East Palestine and president of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Prepare Derailment, referred to as the EPA’s announcement “ironic,” given what performed out in her group.
“They don’t observe the rules that they have already got in place concerning unlawful open burns,” she mentioned. “When you don’t implement the regulation it’s pointless to have the regulation, and to me it’s much more pointless to replace it.”
In an e mail, the White Home didn’t instantly reply to HuffPost’s questions on whether or not the EPA’s proposal on open burning helps advance Biden’s Most cancers Moonshot initiative or if, given the proof indicating that the burn operation in East Palestine was pointless, the EPA ought to have executed extra to forestall it from taking place. The EPA mentioned its position throughout the burn occasion was to conduct air monitoring from outdoors the evacuation space.
“From Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic motion to guard the well being and security of all communities, together with via the Biden Most cancers Moonshot, which is mobilizing a nationwide effort to finish most cancers as we all know it,” a White Home spokesperson mentioned within the e mail. “Whether or not it’s safeguarding the air our youngsters breathe, delivering clear, secure consuming water, or defending communities from poisonous chemical compounds and carcinogens, this Administration will proceed to take bold motion to make sure the well being and security of all People.”
![Biden is pictured during a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 16.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/65fdb77a2300003200550ca6.jpeg?cache=xydDbNr88c&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
MANDEL NGAN by way of Getty Pictures
In an unique interview with HuffPost earlier this month, Kevin Garrahan, a retired EPA official of almost 40 years, flagged a 2022 EPA memo on the harmful follow of open burning of hazardous supplies — a doc he mentioned makes clear that the vent and burn operation in East Palestine violated long-standing EPA rules. Greater than a yr after the derailment, the EPA nonetheless hasn’t taken a place on whether or not it was a prohibited “open burn.” The company has harassed that it was not concerned within the resolution — saying that it was made by the native fireplace chief in session with Norfolk Southern, native legislation enforcement and Ohio officers — whereas persevering with to undertake Norfolk Southern’s “managed burn” language.
Garrahan applauded Biden and the EPA for its newest effort to guard the general public and the setting from the dangers of ongoing open burning of hazardous waste explosives. He referred to as the EPA’s newly proposed rule “an enormous deal,” however mentioned it does little to allay his considerations in regards to the chemical burn in East Palestine.
“Quite the opposite, the proposed rules present compelling proof that EPA has a number of material experience on the follow of open burning,” he mentioned by way of e mail. “EPA’s spectacular experience on open burning, nevertheless, makes it seem even much less probably that the open burn in East Palestine, the dearth of complete environmental monitoring, and the mislabelling of the burn as a ‘managed launch’ was attributable to a lack of awareness.”
“You have a look at East Palestine and suppose, ‘How did this fall via the cracks?’” he mentioned.
An EPA spokesperson mentioned that the company stays “very centered on defending the well being of the East Palestine group.” In an govt order final yr, Biden tasked the Division of Well being and Human Providers to coordinate with Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania to watch for any long-term well being impacts from the derailment.
The administration has repeatedly taken motion on its broader pledge to guard People from harmful substances. In current weeks, Biden’s EPA introduced each a complete ban on asbestos and new guidelines to restrict emissions of ethylene oxide — two of a number of actions that the White Home mentioned assist advance the president’s combat to finish most cancers. In an announcement in regards to the asbestos ban, the White Home mentioned the administration is “delivering on the promise to guard communities from the dangerous results of poisonous substances, together with carcinogens.”
“Decreasing publicity to poisonous chemical compounds protects public well being and advances President Biden’s dedication to making sure all individuals can breathe clear air, drink clear water, and reside in a wholesome group,” the White Home added, occurring to record a number of current actions to guard individuals from cancer-causing chemical compounds.
That record, nevertheless, didn’t embrace the EPA’s new proposal to strengthen open burning guidelines or the separate step it took late final yr to start evaluating the dangers of vinyl chloride, the carcinogenic chemical on the coronary heart of the East Palestine catastrophe.
One factor that Enck, the previous EPA regional administrator and present president of the environmental group Past Plastics, needs to see within the wake of the Ohio catastrophe is a ban on vinyl chloride. She famous that the chemical was designated a carcinogen 5 many years in the past.
“Equally vital, they should undertake a coverage advising that no federal company ought to enable for vinyl chloride to be burned in any circumstance, together with practice derailments,” she mentioned of the Biden administration. “The open burning of vinyl chloride in East Palestine was a severe mistake and may by no means be repeated. It isn’t clear if the federal companies perceive the seriousness of this error or if they are going to put in place insurance policies and procedures to make sure that open burning of this nature by no means occurs once more.”