Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, are increasingly complaining of “unusual” health problems in the wake of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and toxic spill in early February.
“The doctors say I definitely have the chemicals in me, but there’s no one in town who can do the toxicology tests to find out what they are,” resident Wade Lovett told the New York Post.
In his interview with the Post, Lovett said his voice seemed to sound much higher than normal.
“My voice sounds like Mickey Mouse. My normal voice is low. It’s hard to breathe, especially at night,” she said. “My chest hurts so bad at night that I feel like I’m suffocating. I cough a lot of phlegm. I lost my job because the doctor won’t let me go to work.”
Another local resident, Shelby Walker, who lives near the derailment site, told the newspaper that she and her family are also suffering from health problems.
“The bad smell comes and goes,” Walker said. “Yesterday was the first day in probably three or four days that I could smell anything. I lost my sense of smell and taste. I had an eye infection in both eyes. I was having trouble breathing like I was out of breath. Other members of my family have had eye infections and pharyngitis.
“The cleaning staff walk past us at night and don’t even look at us. It’s like we don’t exist. No one has contacted us or said anything,” he added.
There have been a number of residents of East Palestine, Ohio who have reported rashes.
“Numerous villagers have complained of unusual rashes, and a few have visited medical facilities in recent days for treatment,” Collin Rugg reported on February 18. the train derailment and subsequent release of noxious chemicals on February 3.”
A family with John Bosley Jr., his girlfriend and five children located just three blocks away said a 10-year-old boy in the home had developed a rash.
“I can’t say if there’s a link to that, but I don’t know what else it would have come from,” Bosley said.
Another person named Lindsey Ann posted photos on the social media forum East Palestine Talk that showed she had a rash on her abdomen.
#EastPalestineOhio pic.twitter.com/vpyY7DQvsG
— iTamara 💋 🥸 (@Real___iTamara) February 18, 2023
Amanda Greathouse, a local resident who said she has two preschool-aged children, told CNN in early February that she broke out in a rash when she returned and detected a terrible smell that forced her to leave.
“When we came back on the 10th, that’s when we decided we couldn’t raise our kids here,” Greathouse told CNN. She also said there was a smell that reminded her “of hair perm solution.”
When he returned home in early February, within 30 minutes, he developed nausea and a rash.
“When we left, I had a skin rash on my arm and my eyes burned for a few days afterwards,” she said.
President Biden in recent interviews gave no indication that he had plans to visit the East Palestinian community. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently visited the area, a day after former President Donald Trump.
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