Moving forward

Calland also talks about how the most important thing residents of East Palestine can do in this situation is report and document anything strange that happens, such as getting sick or seeing an animal get sick. Without concrete evidence of these medical events, there isn’t much anyone can do to try to solve the problem.

 Calland says, “You should be documenting anything unnormal that you see or experience because it could be part of something bigger you might not have thought about but other people are experiencing the same thing.” 

“The only way we can know for sure that these things are happening is if people report these to the Department of Public Health, Department of Natural Resources because that’s the only way it will ever be on the record,” Calland says. “Even if we don’t think anything is happening here in our area we can’t ever say that correlation equals causation.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), or the environmental disaster response, doesn’t apply to this particular accident because it didn’t follow the specific guidelines for being considered a major disaster under federal law. The accident didn’t meet the major disaster definition because it didn’t cause any property damage; a crucial component of classifying a major disaster under federal law. 

The train company, Norfolk Southern, is being held personally responsible for the reparations of the accident. To date, the company owes about 6.5 million dollars to help the residents of East Palestine affected by the incident. This amount doesn’t include the cost of the cleanup itself. 

Calland says that on a scale of one to ten, one being not concerned and ten being seriously concerned, the citizens of East Palestine should be a 10/10. The situation is both unique and even more difficult because yes, the chemicals released can cause respiratory distress and cancer, but it could also be a common cold. Further testing is needed to rule out these effects and deem the area safe. 

“They need to demand testing, consistent, continuous, testing of the air, the soil, the water table, and consistent medical checkups,” Calland says. “The main concern people should be worried about is the effect of the pollutant in the water table. When the water travels through the Ohio River it also seeps down into the ground and that’s where many people get their water from– wells.”