East Palestine residents express concerns to presidential candidate Marianne Williamson
From the left, Linda Murphy and Connie Rager of East Palestine were among those speaking with Marianne Williamson about their health concerns after the train derailment. (Photo by Stephanie Elverd)
DARLINGTON — A group of East Palestine residents concerned about the health impacts they face in the wake of the Norfolk Southern train derailment met with 2024 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson in Darlington, Pa., on Tuesday. The residents told Williamson, who plans to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, that they are sick and tired — sick from chemical exposure and tired of being dismissed, displaced and distressed. “My sense of community is not greater than my sense of safety. I want to get out, but I can’t,” said Linda Murphy. “Living at my home is the only choice I have and it’s detrimental to my health. How can they take your home, your sanctuary and make it somewhere dangerous? We are being told ‘you can’t possibly (test positive) for these chemicals’ but we are.” Murphy is among many residents who say that independent medical testing has shown high levels of thiodiglycolic acid or vinyl chloride metabolite in their urine samples. TDGA is the body’s major breakdown product of vinyl chloride and a biomarker for exposure to the chemical. Testing for the metabolite is the only way to detect vinyl chloride exposure, as vinyl chloride breaks down in the body rapidly. Any detection of .50 is considered a reporting level of TDGA. Some residents say they have registered numbers twice that much. Last week, during the Environmental Protection Agency’s third installment of a public informational series, EPA Region 5 Response Coordinator Mark Durno challenged the validity of the metabolite test, asserting test results can be too easily influenced by other variables such as smoking, consuming alcohol or the introduction of B-12 supplements to the body. He also reiterated the agency’s claim that data does not support any connection between the high levels of TDGA detected through urinalysis and the train derailment. “We’re just not seeing it,” Durno said. “We’re not seeing it in the air, we are not seeing it in the soil and we are not seeing it in the drinking water.” While angry at Norfolk Southern for causing the mess, the residents had the most contempt for the EPA and other health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) — agencies which by their very title have a duty to “protect and prevent” the public from the type of exposure that the group of about 80 say have left them with rashes, chronic headaches, nosebleeds, respiratory ailments and digestive issues. “I’ve contacted the CDC and the ATSDR and I can’t get answers,” Murphy said. “Are we supposed to be OK with half -truths? We are being told the air is fine and the water is fine but these chemicals are coming up in our systems and they can’t tell what it means short term or long term.” East Palestine native Chase Kinder said he met with Durno and Alfred Saucedo, chief of staff for EPA Region 5, earlier on Tuesday. Kinder said he requested baseline testing for the community and asked the EPA to explain how chemicals listed on the derailed “train’s manifest keep showing up in people’s epidemiology.” The request was denied and the question was left unanswered. “I think the intelligence of East Palestine has been underestimated to the point I am insulted by it, “ Kinder said. “I don’t think the EPA has the best intentions of our people. I told the EPA they need to go back to the railroad and convey true data. You need to let (Norfolk Southern) know that farmers and agricultural people don’t have a product to sell, that our ground is contaminated, that people are sick. And the answers were ‘the numbers aren’t reflecting that.’ The EPA has tunnel vision. They have an objective and goal, and it’s not to watch out for us.” Williamson said people in East Palestine are at the mercy of politics and policy guided by big business. “The larger story is, whether it is East Palestine or any other situation, there is a sense that ‘the fix is in’. There is an unholy alliance between government and corporate power,” Williamson said. “Our job is to override that. We don’t need any more analysis of the situation. People in East Palestine sure as heck don’t. Now, the conservation is ‘what are we going to do about it?'” For the East Palestine residents who came to Darlington to tell Williamson their stories, the big question is what do they do now? Like Murphy, Connie Rager does not have the means to leave the village. What she does have is the unfortunate luck to reside a mere tenth of a mile outside the evacuation zone. “I cannot get any help because I live outside the one-mile mark,” she said. “They will not test my home. They will not give me any help whatsoever.” An emotional Rager, who just celebrated one-year of remission from cervical cancer in November, is scared. She can’t afford any more illness — not financially or emotionally. “I have tested positive for vinyl chloride. My levels are very high. I am at 1.3,” she said. “I am 60-years old. Realistically, I will never live to see any kind of settlement. I can’t afford to move. It is all I can do to afford to live everyday, let alone move, so I have to stay. I don’t have great healthcare. Me and my husband already struggle everyday. So for them to say that it’s not their responsibility because I live outside of a zone? What am I supposed to do?” Williamson said Rager and others in East Palestine deserve free healthcare as they face an uncertain future of adverse health impacts. She also said the government could provide just that as it did in Libby, Montana, where 10 percent of the residents have been diagnosed with an illness related to naturally-occurring asbestos that was unearthed under the town of 4,000 during mining operations. “There is a governmental right that was already exercised before in Libby, Montana, that the government can come in here and say that everyone who is in any way affected by this situation will have free universal healthcare,” Williams said. “There is a way the government could declare an emergency situation.” An emergency is difficult to declare when the government agencies in charge of overseeing the monitoring process contend that there is no exceedance of toxins. The municipal water has been declared clean. The EPA reported dioxins in the soil were found to be at an acceptable number. Private well tests performed by the Columbiana County Health District in unison with Norfolk Southern contractors report no detection of harmful compounds. The private well testing is only available at no cost to those who live inside the evacuation area, leaving residents like Rager to foot the bill for peace of mind. The only areas of concern the EPA will concede are the creeks that weave through and under the village. Durno confirmed both Leslie Run and Sulphur Run remain contaminated. The agency insists all other environmental tests have detected no levels of concern. As far as medical testing, the EPA is adamant that their science indicates that is unnecessary. Murphy vehemently disagrees. “We need testing and the testing needs to be accurate and it needs to be more thorough,” Murphy said. “Not just air, water and soil. We need to have testing for us. We need to get this baseline testing. We are being rejected and we are being turned away. None of the answers we are getting make any sense.” Stephanie Elverd can be reached atLocal News
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