The pollution, some of which came from the burning of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, spread over 540,000 square miles, showing the fire’s impact was larger in scale and scope than the initial predictions, according to a study in Environmental Research Letters.

Gay said the results did not mean “death and destruction,” as concentrations were low on an absolute scale — “not melting steel or eating paint off buildings” — but that they were still “very extreme” compared to normal, with measurements higher than recorded in the previous ten years. “I think we should be concerned,” Juliane Beier, an expert on vinyl chloride effects who didn’t take part in the study, told the Post, citing the possibility of long-term environmental impacts on communities.

The new study helps explain the wider environmental impact. The researchers looked at inorganic compound samples in rain and snow at 260 sites. The highest levels of chloride were found in northern Pennsylvania and near the Canada-New York border, which was downwind from the accident.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/toxic-chemicals-ohio-train-derailment-16-states-cd/?

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Widespread impacts to precipitation of the East Palestine Ohio train accident

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad52ac