When train crashes leak harmful chemicals, small town firefighters can be vulnerable

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When trains crash, the consequences can be serious. Local firefighters who respond are uniquely vulnerable to the effects. But, across the country, they are often underprepared to handle the chemicals when they come off the tracks.

for employees who work with the chemical in industrial settings to no more than about the equivalent of a few drops of water inside a standard size bathtub filled to the top. When their exposure passes that low limit, employers are required to physically examine their staff. Blood serum samples are required to be taken and tested.

"It's difficult to find answers," Jones wrote to NPR in an email."It doesn't appear health screening of firefighters and or first responders are on anyone's top priority list right now."of Youngstown, OH, that firefighters from surrounding departments would be tested for heavy metals for the next seven years. But by March, no one had reached out to Jones about that, he said.

Norfolk Southern, the rail company worth more than $48 billion, confirmed it did not provide residents from East Palestine with tests for vinyl chloride. A spokesman said that"air monitoring was established quickly following the derailment and never indicated the need for such testing."

 

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