It has been two years since a train carrying vinyl chloride, a toxic petrochemical and known human carcinogen, derailed in East Palestine, turning life upside down in small-town Ohio and Pennsylvania. The people of East Palestine and neighboring communities continue to suffer from the effects of this chemical disaster.
This disaster in Ohio could have been avoided especially if vinyl chloride, already banned for some uses, was more strictly regulated or banned for all uses. EPA is about to assess the risks of vinyl chloride to decide whether this potent carcinogen presents an “unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.” But its plans for this evaluation are woefully inadequate.
The people of East Palestine deserve better—we all deserve better.
Tell EPA: Protect Families From Vinyl Chloride
Vice President JD Vance was a newly elected Ohio Senator at the time of the derailment. He fought for the people of East Palestine, calling on then-President Biden to fund medical testing, and even co-sponsored a bipartisan Railway Safety Act (it failed). “I cannot get the White House to give a crap about these people,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Fast forward. The new EPA chief, Lee Zeldin, is an oil and gas industry sympathizer handpicked by Trump. There are strong indications he is not interested in safeguarding our families from toxic chemicals if it impacts companies’ bottom lines.
Vinyl is big business. The U.S. produces tens of billions of pounds of vinyl chloride each year. Almost all of this goes into the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the plastic that’s used to make everything from drinking water pipes to our children’s toys. Dolls, rubber duckies, and more shouldn’t be made from toxic petrochemicals!
It’s time for EPA to put people’s health over petrochemical industry profits and take real action on vinyl chloride to protect communities like East Palestine from future disasters. This was not—and will not be—an isolated incident.
Read more about Moms’ work on vinyl chloride and chemical safety.