The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that they will not be testing for dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio after a train derailed and authorities burned hazardous materials sending a large chemical plume into the air.
The train derailed on February 3rd and three days later large amounts of vinyl chloride were burned to avoid an explosion. The controlled burn may have been necessary but it polluted a massive area and Americans are in danger. The EPA is seemingly dragging its feet and now it appears they are outright refusing to take every precaution to protect the health of those in the danger zone.
Dioxins, or persistent organic pollutants, and can cause “cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system.”
East Palestine residents have reported a slew of different ailments since the derailment and subsequent chemical burn-off. There is a strong possibility thousands of Americans have been harmed and the health impacts could be devastating.
The EPA's attitude towards the East Palestine disaster is apathetic at best, and deliberate at worst. The Biden administration seems more concerned with downplaying the disaster at the expense of American health.
EPA Region 5 administrator Debra Shore claimed on Monday that, "Dioxins are ubiquitous in the environment. They were here before the accident; they will be here after, and we don’t have baseline information in this area to do a proper test. But, we are talking to our toxicologist and looking into it."
While the EPA is "looking into it," Americans in East Palestine are suffering from strange symptoms, and the EPA's assurance that all well seem to be misleading.
Headaches, rashes, and other respiratory issues have been cropping up in East Palestine and the surrounding area since the massive chemical burn-off.
One voice calling out the EPA is Stephen Lester, science director at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice. He stated during a town hall in East Palestine that the EPA's “one major mistake" is ignoring dioxins.
Lester said, "The level of dioxin that gets into a body, a person, an animal, a cow, that could lead to health problems is extraordinarily low. It does not take very much. I’d be very concerned if I had a farm, especially if I was aware, as some people described in that meeting, that the black cloud from the burning had settled onto their property."
It is hard to imagine the EPA dragging its feet as it has in an environmental crisis of this scale if the political party of the sitting President was different.
While thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride were burning in Ohio, President Biden was visiting Ukraine and promising America's unwavering support and endless billions to finance Ukraine's war against Russia.
Even the media response to the crisis was remarkably subdued considering the massive impact this disaster has on both American health and the environment.
The EPA is likely not testing for dioxins as there is a good chance that testing will remove any plausible deniability the Biden administration has as to the danger Americans are in. There is no crisis killing Americans if the EPA simply refuses to test the area.
