The study reveals that chemical contamination from the East Palestine train disaster covered a third of the country

Chemical pollution emitted from the East Palestine, Ohio, train crash in 2023 rained down on 16 different states, according to a study released Wednesday.

A Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed and crashed in eastern Palestine in February 2023, sending plumes of black smoke billowing over Ohio and Pennsylvania. The smoke carried the chemicals and contaminated 16 states, spreading over approximately 540,000 square miles of land. seconds to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters.

“I didn't expect to see such a far-reaching impact,” David Gay, lead author of the study, he said The Washington Post. “There's more here than most people would have guessed, including me.”

According to the study, chemicals released by the accident rained down on the Midwest and East Coast regions, affecting states such as Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New England and South Carolina. People located or living closer to the accident reported various effects on healthincluding rashes, headaches and nausea.

The chemical concentrations detected further from the crash were not “toxic, but they are quite unusual in many places,” Gay told the Post. However, marine and plant life could still suffer adverse effects.

“It's not death and destruction. They're pretty low concentrations, but they're very high relative to what we normally see, some of the highest we've measured in the last ten years,” Gay told the Post.

The study sheds light on the finer details of the accident, but it is difficult to know what long-term effects it will have on the environment in eastern Palestine, according to Juliane Beier, a leading expert on the effects of vinyl chloride, one of the products chemicals carried by the train.

After the train crashed in February 2023, state and federal emergency services they were left struggling to contain the falls as civilians sheltered in place. Jennifer Homendy, President of the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed in March that the controlled burn that was performed on the train wreckage to prevent an explosion was unnecessary and actually exacerbated the release of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.

President Joe Biden issued an executive order several months after the accident for federal emergency services to appoint a disaster recovery coordinator to help the East Palestinian community recover. Biden's Justice Department sued Norfolk Southern in March over the accident and seated for 310 million dollars in May.

Biden was often criticized for waiting more than a year to visit East Palestine. When he finally visited in February 2024, he met with the community for about two hours, before jetting off to Delaware, one of his frequent vacation destinations. Former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine and delivered water and food to the community shortly after the accident.

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