The derailment, chemical leak, and “controlled burn” of toxic vinyl chloride in East Palestine on February 3, 2023, is continuing to affect the health of residents, who have gotten little help from either the Norfolk Southern railroad responsible for the disaster or from the federal government, said Dr. Margaret Flowers, a medical doctor, co-director of Popular Resistance, and a member of the steering committee of HOPE (Health Over Profit) that aims to achieve Medicare for All.
The Radio Sputnik interview with Flowers can be seen here and starts at time index 1:32:00.
Flowers recently spoke on her podcast Clearing the FOG with an activist fighting for the rights of victims of the disaster: Hilary Flint of Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, the vice president of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment.
“They definitely have not been able to resume normal life,” Flowers told Sputnik.
“What she reported is just a failure at every level - local, state and federal - from the beginning and they continue to be failed. The waterways are still very dirty, there’s lots of videos you can find on social media of people who just overturn a rock or poke a stick in the creek and it gets an oily sheen. Peoples’ homes have been contaminated, many who still can’t return to their homes. And the chemicals have soaked into soft surfaces and even the wood in the homes, so when there’s a hot day, it off-gasses and they continue to be exposed over and over again, but they’re not getting the monitoring that they need to let them know when that’s happening, whether it’s safe, etc etc.”
“The stuff that Norfolk Southern is doing is all PR. ‘Oh, we’re going to invite you to a fair and you get free admission,’ or ‘we’ll clean your dog’ - they had dog shampoo day,” she explained. “You know, so all of this stuff really has nothing to do with the actual crisis.”
“Meanwhile, people are not getting the financial aid they need to be able to replace the items in their homes, like their mattresses or their carpets or the things like that that are contaminated. They’re not getting the testing, there are only certain areas where they would do the testing, but the contamination, especially after they burned the railroad cars and that toxic plume - I think people saw the photo of that - went pretty far and wide.”
“Where Hillary lives, which is five miles from the actual site, she had her home tested and found vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals in her home. So, people having to get their own water testing, their own soil and air testing, and then trying to secure air monitors inside their homes - this is all stuff that the government should be doing, not relying on a private corporation to do, because we know they’re going to skimp and lie. The government should be seeking funds from Norfolk Southern and then overseeing a process of ensuring people get what they need.”
Flowers said it “would make a difference” if US President Joe Biden had declared an emergency in Ohio, as the state’s governor requested a month ago after months of pressure from East Palestine residents.
“What that would do is then make it official that that area would be declared an emergency site and be able to qualify for federal funding and support. But the state of Pennsylvania - you know, this happened right on the border - can’t request an emergency declaration unless Ohio gets one, so this is really a first step,” she explained.
“Also, moving to try to get health care that they need, they’re talking about pursuing getting Medicare for the residents there, because they are being told now that they are at risk for cancer. Many of these people are low-income, maybe not covered [by health insurance], so getting that monitoring and care - there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to cover that without some form of public insurance,” Flowers said.
Workers continue to clean up remaining tank cars, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio, following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment.
© AP Photo / Matt Freed
She compared the situation to that in Libby, Montana, which was declared a superfund site by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2009 after more than 400 people died due to asbestos exposure from the vermiculite mines. In 2011, a pilot program was set up under the aegis of the Affordable Care Act to provide the victims with Medicare access, and in 2020, the Montana Supreme Court found BNSF Railway liable for the chemical exposure.
Flowers said the East Palestine residents requested and have been denied a urinalysis test to determine if they have the toxic chemicals in their bodies. A local resident told her that area physicians were “told not to do that” because it wouldn’t show anything, but some did it anyway and found that the chemicals did, in fact, show up in residents’ urine.
“So what they really want is the monitoring to know what they’ve been exposed to, and then have ongoing monitoring to see what are the impacts - if they develop cancer, can they get early screening for that, and then can they get treatment,” she explained.
“Because you know, the way that the health care system is in the United States, so much of the responsibility financially is put onto the individual. So if you can’t afford to get that test done, if you can’t afford to see that doctor, you can’t get it. And then, if you have a serious problem like cancer, many people then go through financial ruin trying to cover the costs of the care that they need. So they would like to see that they get the same thing that the Libby, Montana, folks got, and that some people with chronic diseases in the US get. They would like to be able to have Medicare for life.”
The activist said that is why she advocates for a national health service.
“It is the government that is responsible for paying for the health care, so it has an impact on public policy. They’re going to be less likely to subsidize, to permit a polluting industry to come into the middle of a community knowing that the government is going to be the one bearing the costs of the health care impact of that. So there’s a lot of ripple effects that would come out of a national, improved Medicare for All,” Flowers said.
Turning to the wildfire on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where thousands of homes have been destroyed and more than 100 people killed, and where the federal government has actually declared an emergency.
This photo provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows burnt areas in Lahaina on the Maui island, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, following a wildfire.
© AP Photo / Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
“The lesson would be: don’t take it for granted that you’re going to get the help you need and start organizing early-on and being vocal early-on in making the demand. And don’t let the government pass this off onto corporations - no, the government needs to be the one that steps in and provides what is needed for the community and then it can go to the corporations and get reimbursed. But they need to make those demands early and continue to make them and just keep putting the information out there so that folks don’t forget.”
“I think one thing that we really have to be aware of in Maui is they’re already having privateers coming in and wanting to buy up the property there and displace the community. We need to be vocal against that and support them to be able to heal and rebuild and to get back to their lives again,” Flowers said.