WTF Is Going On In East Palestine?
Something stinks about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio and it isn’t the phosgene gas that was released at the accident site. It seems as though every day that passes another strange detail emerges and it feels like the truth is being derailed as well.
This accident occurred at 9:00 pm on February 3rd, but it did not garner much immediate attention. When it did at first it seemed as though it was just an unfortunate accident and maybe it was, but it seems mired in a lot of confusion and bad decisions.
When the train derailed it was carrying vinyl chloride, a highly toxic and combustible substance. When Norfolk Southern, the owner, and operator of the train arrived at the scene, they eventually made a decision to open holes in the derailed tankers in order to avoid a catastrophic explosion. This would not have been necessary if the emergency relief valves would have operated properly.
By opening the holes, they released over one million pounds of vinyl chloride into the environment. The vinyl chloride was ignited and the subsequent fire created a huge phosgene gas cloud which was used as a weapon in World War I and has been banned since.
As the plume of black toxic smoke drifted, the 4,700 residents of East Palestine grew increasingly alarmed. Information on whether it was safe to be in their homes was slow in arriving and was met with a blend of confusion and skepticism.
Here’s a rough timeline of those first few days:
On February 4th, approximately half of the residents were instructed to evacuate when firefighters were unable to control the fire. Then on February 6th, a decision was made to drain and conduct a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride in the five derailed train cars.
On February 7th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), conducted tests on the air and water and when those samples were deemed to be safe, the mandatory evacuation was lifted the following day, February 8th.
Still, streams in the area were obviously contaminated, covered in an oily film that resulted in the deaths of thousands of fish. Chicken and foxes were also found dead in the area. Meanwhile, residents are complaining of headaches, burning eyes, rashes, and nausea. In lieu of these contradictory signs, the EPA continues to say that the air is safe to breathe and that if your water has been tested and has been cleared, it is safe to drink.
If you put yourself in their position, you can understand the residents’ confusion and skepticism. Surrounded by contaminated creeks, finding dead animals, and many suffering from symptoms that seem to result from the accident, yet they’re being told everything is fine.
The National Transportation Safety Board stated last week that it had:
“identified and examined the rail car that initiated the derailment, and that surveillance video showed what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment.”
That being said, several employees of Norfolk Southern are accusing the company of contributing to the cause of the accident.
The employees, that wished to remain anonymous, told CBS News that the train was too long and too heavy. The train consisted of 151 cars, stretched to a length of 9,300 feet, and weighed approximately 18,000 tons.
“We shouldn’t be running trains that are 150 car lengths long. There should be some limitations to the weight and the length of the trains. In this case, had the train not been 18,000 tons, it’s very likely the effects of the derailment would have been mitigated.”
“The workers are exhausted, times for car inspections have been drastically cut, and there are no regulations on the size of these trains.”
Jarad Cassity, the National Legislative Director for one of the unions representing Norfolk Southern employees was also suspicious, telling CBS News:
“There’s a good chance the car that derailed had not been properly inspected for some time.” He also claims that company instructions allow inspections to last less than 1 minute.
“You combine that with the added length and tonnage, plus the fact that it had all this hazardous material, and this was predictable. If nothing changes, it will happen again.”
In response, Norfolk Southern issued this statement:
“The weight distribution of this train was uniform throughout and included a mid-train engine, which helps manage the dynamic forces of the train.”
As you may have suspected, a class action lawsuit has been initiated against Norfolk Southern. The lawsuit claims:
“Train 32N should never have been operated in such a reckless manner that its wheel bearings would fail and cause derailment of a train carrying highly toxic and combustible substances. Even after derailment, the integrity of cars containing highly toxic and combustible substances should not have breached, and emergency pressure relief valves should have functioned as designed.”
“Nevertheless, Norfolk Southern layered on yet more failures once it found its derailed train at imminent risk of catastrophic detonation. Norfolk Southern blew holes in its vinyl chloride cars and dumped 1,109,400 pounds of cancer-causing Vinyl Chloride directly into the environment. Norfolk Southern discharged more cancer-causing Vinyl Chloride into the environment in the course of a week than all industrial emitters combined did in the course of a year.”
“Norfolk Southern ignited a 1 million pound plus chemical burn pit that burned for days and covered Plaintiffs and Class Members in a large plume of thick black smoke. A mushroom cloud resulted from the blaze, dispersing toxic chemicals for miles and across State lines into Pennsylvania.”
Cynicism continued to grow when residents were asked to sign a waiver protecting an entity called “Unified Command” from liability and damages.
Unified Command appears to be some sort of a conglomeration as described in the waiver, the wording on the waiver appears below:
_______________, The Legal and Rightful Owner or Occupant of the property (“landowner”), hereby authorize Norfolk Southern, its affiliates, assisting local, State, and Federal Agencies, including but not limited to, CTEH LLC in any of their personnel (“collectively”, “MONITORING TEAM”) to access the property for air-monitoring or environmental sampling:
______ Outside the home or structure at the property
______ inside the home or structure at the property.
Landowner agrees to indemnify, release, and hold harmless UNIFIED COMMAND from and against any and all legal claims including for personal injury or property damage arising from Monitoring Teams performance of air monitoring or environmental sampling at the property on the date of signature below.
Landowner states he or she has the authority to grant access to the property and to sign this document.
Signature of Landowner: ________________
Printed Name: ________________
Signed On (Date): ________________
When Senator JD Vance was informed that the waiver was circulating, he contacted Norfolk Southern and was told (believe it or not), that the wrong form was being circulated by “accident.”
Suspicion and mistrust have also resulted from the fact that Michael Regan, the EPA administrator, chose not to visit the area until February 16th. During that visit he made contradictory statements, repeating that if the air and water have been tested in your home and is deemed safe, residents should “trust the science.” He then seemingly contradicted himself by making some vague and disjointed statement about EPA officials arriving when conditions are safe.
Could his confusion be because he was telling a veiled lie?
Just two weeks before the train derailment the CDC modified the toxicology profile for vinyl chloride, by drastically increasing the lethal exposure level and eliminating any information about how the substance affects children.
The lethal exposure was changed from 100PPM to 100,000PPM. This is an increase of 1,000 percent. Prior to this change, the lethal exposure rate had remained the same for 17 years.
Why would the CDC expand the lethal exposure rate by 1,000 times just before an accident took place involving that particular substance? Also, Is the EPA administrator reluctant to send additional officials into the area until the lower CDC levels are met?
Even more suspicious is the fact that on January 26th all residents of East Palestine were encouraged to pick up a free “MYID bracelet.”
A MYID Bracelet is a new biometric tracking device that provides first responders with updates on an individual’s health condition during an emergency or major disaster.
A quick glance at a calendar will show you that January 26th was 6 days before the accident on February 3rd.
Suspicious? Bob Moore, a farmer and lifetime resident of East Palestine thinks so. He reached out to The Gateway Pundit to share his opinion.
“It was exactly a week before the derailment happened. The people were asked to go to the local fire department in downtown East Palestine to get that MyID. They began monitoring your physical activity, your heart rate, your respiration, anything you might be exposed to. I see this as the kind of censor you would put on an astronaut or on an athlete that you wanted to track to see how he’d react to stress or being winded, or in this instance chemical exposure. It’s a monitoring device.”
On January 26, Ohio local affiliate WKBN announced East Palestine would begin making “an important medical device available to all 4,700 residents” starting January 29.
“The MyID program is ready to roll out in East Palestine. It’s a medical information system that helps first responders provide care. MyID provides wearable devices or key FOBs that have QR codes. Emergency responders use a camera phone to access important medical information.”
Then this. Yesterday, utilities in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky closed Ohio River water intake valves over concerns of contamination from the train derailment.
Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) and Northern Kentucky Water District (NKWD) are taking precautions because testing at several intake sites found low levels of Butyl Acrylate in the river.
According to the NKWD:
“Butyl acrylate is a clear liquid with a sweet odor used in arts and crafts, adhesives, flooring, sinks, bathtubs, to name just a few of the uses of the chemical.”
Hmm, a new, biometric tracking device that provides first responders with updates on an individual’s health condition during an emergency or major disaster, that just happened to be handed out to a quiet little town with a population of 4,700.
The CDC raised lethal toxicity levels by 1,000 percent on the very substance that was released during the derailment and of course the “accidental” distribution of liability waiver forms.
Nothing to see here.
Just follow the science folks.
