A federal lawsuit has been launched in the wake of the fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line last week.
The action seeks to force Norfolk Southern to initiate health testing for residents in both states.
Undetermined damages are also being sought as well as a full insight into the nature of the chemicals released into the atmosphere and water table in the accident.
Smoke rises from a derailed cargo train in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 4, 2023. The train accident sparked a massive fire and evacuation orders, officials and reports said Saturday. No injuries or fatalities were reported. The train was shipping cargo from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, when it left the tracks. (DUSTIN FRANZ/AFP via Getty)
AP reports the lawsuit filed Thursday by two Pennsylvania residents calls for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed Feb. 3 in the village. No one was injured in the derailment investigators said was caused by a broken axle, as Breitbart News reported.
Watch below as a massive inferno and threat of a “catastrophic” explosion follow the initial 50-car derailment:
While five of the cars contained vinyl chloride, another five also were transporting unspecified “hazardous materials.”
Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.
Environmental regulators have been monitoring the air and water in surrounding communities and have said that so far the air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected.
The Ohio and federal environmental protection agencies, working with local teams, “established a series of containment measures to help limit environmental impact to local streams and rivers from water runoff from the site,” Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee said in a statement last Wednesday designed to ease local fears of contamination.
This photo provided by the Ohio National Guard, ONG 52nd Civil Support Team members prepare to enter an incident area to assess remaining hazards with a lightweight inflatable decontamination system (LIDS) in East Palestine, Ohio, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Ohio National Guard via AP)
Those measures include installing earthen dams “to capture contaminants that may leave the derailment site” and the installation of “high volume aeration stations to help remove contaminants from Sulfur Run” stream, Lee said.
But some residents have complained about headaches and feeling sick since the accident while others demand immediate action to make clear what is at stake.
Norfolk Southern declined to comment on the lawsuit.