Several families who live in the East Palestine area and were extras in the Netflix film 'White Noise' when it filmed in Ohio in 2021 are now living the fiction they helped bring to the screen.
— -- When Ben Ratner's family signed up in 2021 to be extras in the movie"White Noise," they thought it would be a fun distraction from their day-to-day life in blue-collar East Palestine, Ohio.
Officials ordered them to evacuate their home last week, a day after a Norfolk Southern train carrying 20 cars of hazardous materials slid off the rails and caught fire, threatening to explode. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the cause of the incident. Scholars who study DeLillo's work say they are not surprised by the collision of life and art. His work is often described as prescient, said Jesse Kavadlo, an English professor at Maryville University in St. Louis and president of the Don DeLillo Society.
By that afternoon, an official alert warned that people needed to move even farther, beyond a 2-mile radius. Roughly half of the town's 4,800 residents had to evacuate. East Palestine is in an economically depressed area, Ratner said, but it had been on a rebound. He and his wife had been considering opening another café there, but now they're worried that plan is in jeopardy.
Although authorities have assured the residents that any immediate danger has passed, some residents have yet to return home. Ratner said they're worried about longer-term risks that environmental officials are only beginning to assess. "Under this phase, it's been the emergency response," Kurt Kohler of the Ohio EPA's Office of Emergency Response said Wednesday."As you see the emergency services go back home, off-site, Ohio EPA is going to remain involved through our other divisions that oversee the long-term cleanup of these kinds of spills."Although the explosion risk is past, Ratner said, people who live in East Palestine want to know about the chemical threats that might linger.
Butyl acrylate is a clear, colorless liquid with a strong, fruity odor that's used to make plastics and paint. It's possible to inhale it, ingest it or absorb it through the skin. It irritates the eyes, skin and lungs and may cause shortness of breath, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Repeated exposure can lead to lung damage.
A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern acknowledged but did not respond to CNN's request for more information on how much of these chemicals spilled into the soil and water."Initially, with most environmental spills, it is difficult to determine the exact amount of material that has been released into the air, water, and soil.
State officials said they would continue to monitor the site for exactly that reason. They are also continuing to try to dig and remove contaminated soil.
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