EXPERTS are worried about the health of an Ohio community after a 50-car train derailment caused a hazmat emergency.
In East Palestine, animals are reportedly getting sick and allegedly even dying in the surrounding area after a train derailment on the evening of February 3 caused a release of hazardous chemicals.
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About 50 cars derailed from the tracks near the Pennsylvania state line and caused a massive explosion along with towering fires.
The train was said to have been carrying a variety of products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, according to AP News.
Some of those products, in 20 of 100 cars on the track, carried hazardous chemicals “including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks,” per the rail operator Norfolk Southern.
National Transportation Safety Board member Michael Graham explained to reporters that 14 cars were carrying vinyl chloride and were specifically “exposed to fire.”
Vinyl chloride is used in plastic products and is reportedly associated with an increased risk of liver cancer, per the National Cancer Institute.
Mayor Trent Conway evacuated the area in a one-mile radius soon after, declaring a state of emergency because of federal officials’ worries over the exposed hazardous materials.
Now, locals like Taylor Holzer and his family, who run Parker Dairy and live just outside the evacuation area, are allegedly feeling the effects, per local ABC News outlet WKBN 27.
Holzer is registered as a fox keeper with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and told WKBN that some of his foxes broke their legs and even collapsed when trying to run after the derailment.
“Out of nowhere, he just started coughing really hard, just shut down, and he had liquid diarrhea and just went very fast,” Holzer explained.
He continued that several of his foxes have been acting strange after the derailment, with a few having “abnormally puffy faces” and others refusing to eat.
Many also have stomach issues, according to Holzer.
“This is not [how] a fox acts. He is very weak, limp. His eyes are very watery and weepy,” he said.
Holzer noted that some also constantly pace in their pens, which he says is another sign that they are unwell.
All of these issues, he claimed, are from the nearby derailment and the chemicals that were released.
“Smoke and chemicals from the train, that’s the only thing that can cause it, because it doesn’t just happen out of nowhere,” Holzer noted.
“The chemicals that we’re being told are safe in the air, that’s definitely not safe for the animals … or people.”
He continued that other nearby residents have allegedly had cats die and birds acting strange.
“People’s cats are getting sick and dying, and people’s other birds that they have in their house that they weren’t being able to evacuate either. It’s just it’s not safe for them,” he said.
As The U.S. Sun previously reported, the air quality in the East Palestine area was reportedly in “good condition,” and the Environmental Protection Agency was monitoring the air at the scene.
The flames spread to at least one commercial structure, but fire crews quickly put out the main body of the fire.
No one was reportedly killed or injured during the derailment.
People displaced by the fire were said to have been provided shelter at a local high school and a community center.
For more health content, check out The U.S. Sun’s coverage of an urgent vape warning as dangerous fakes reportedly contain a kind of poison.
The U.S. Sun also has the story of an urgent meningitis warning.
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