Are Transportation Disasters on the Rise or Is It Just Our Imagination?
Also, are we witnessing a cover-up of how bad the ecological disaster in East Palestine, Ohio truly is? New reports suggest there is more going on than meets the eye.
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Helicopter crashes. Train derailments. Explosions. Chemical fires. The U.S. military shooting down ‘UFOs,’ as well Chinese spy balloons. What in the hell is going on?
Update: Now, meteors?!
Are such disasters on the rise or is it just our imagination? We’ll touch on the data for technological disasters below to help put these bewildering events in context. You will want to see these numbers to throw into relief some of the wild statistics being thrown around on social media.
But now, the biggest ecological disaster in modern U.S. history is unfolding before our very eyes in East Palestine, Ohio after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and approximately fifty cars with toxic chemicals overturned, spilling noxious fumes and gases into the air. Amid the fallout of this environmental catastrophe that began on February 3, a nation on edge has watched numerous other disasters capture headlines around the country.
On Wednesday, Americans watched in horror as they witnessed footage of a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter plummeting to the earth and onto a busy highway near Huntsville, Alabama.
No one on board survived the crash. The FAA did not provide further details. Redstone Arsenal, a U.S. Army facility located near the site of the crash, said the aircraft was not associated with its fleet. Bizarre, to say the very least.
Also on Wednesday, the Tulsa Port Authority in Oklahoma advised that a chemical tanker caught fire at the Port of Catoosa. A hazardous materials warning was issued that led to local evacuations. The chemical/oil fire was contained and the port is now reported to have been reopened.
This follows upon other hair-raising accidents this week. On Tuesday, an 18-wheeler overturned on the I-10 highway near Tucson, Arizona. Police said the truck was carrying about “2000 pounds of the toxic chemical nitric acid." A Hazardous Materials warning was given as well as shelter-in-place instructions.
On Monday, an 18-wheeler ran into a train carrying hazardous materials, predominately household cleaning products, near Splendora City, Texas, located about 40 miles northeast of Houston. The truck driver did not survive the crash.
Two other train accidents happened on Monday. A train hit a man in Blount County, Tennessee while crossing the tracks. A train derailment in South Carolina also occurred on Monday. An investigation into the cause of that derailment is ongoing. Neither accident appeared to involve chemical spills or fires, fortunately.
On January 28, there was another train derailment, which caused an acid spill. About 130 people in north Louisiana were ordered to evacuate due to a leak of corrosive chemicals.
But the worst of these accidents is surely the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and subsequent ecological disaster. There is now controversy brewing about just how bad it really is and if regulatory agencies are engaging in a cover-up alongside lukewarm mainstream media coverage.
While there are ‘all clear’ signals being given to Ohio residents in the vicinity of East Palestine, there are also conflicting messages being sent by safety authorities amid the involvement of regulatory compliance firms with a history of covering for corporate interests.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday provided an update on the chemical fallout from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and ecological disaster.
“There is a plume [of chemicals] moving down the Ohio River," said Tiffani Kavalec, the head of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s water management subdivision. "It's near Huntington, West Virginia, right now."
Kavalec said that the plume is composed mainly of “fire combustion chemicals.” There may also be multiple “volatile organic compounds” in the Ohio River but are “very diluted,” she added.
Local news station WLWT reported on Monday that small amounts of the chemicals had been identified in the Ohio River, which winds through or borders Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. It supplies more than 5 million people with drinking water. States hundreds of miles away are evaluating its drinking water for the presence of toxic chemicals.
However, the latest reports on Wednesday contradict the earlier assessments.
"No contaminants were found in the Ohio River after Greater Cincinnati Water Works tested it for multiple hazardous chemicals," WXIX reported.
"According to the Water Quality of Richard Miller Treatment Plant Intake data, all four chemicals were not detected in the Ohio River, including butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride," the report added.
But investigative journalist Kanekoa is throwing the red flag on the choice of one private contractor hired by Norfolk Southern to test for water, soil, and air quality in the area of the train derailment and chemical disaster.
“The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH), a private contractor hired by Norfolk Southern to test water, soil, and air quality in East Palestine, Ohio, has a history of minimizing the effects of environmental disasters to satisfy its corporate employers, according to critics,” Kanekoa found.
CTEH’s work for BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 drew accusations of the “fox guarding the chicken coop” from the New York Times and “conflicts of interest” from Democrats in Congress, Kanekoa noted.
Democrats cited in the report also noted the company's “inaccurate monitoring procedures during an air quality survey following the 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee, bad sampling techniques used to evaluate soil contamination at a 2005 refinery spill in Louisiana, and a controversial analysis of toxic drywall in 2006.”
Not exactly a gold star review.
But it gets worse.
There is strong evidence that Norfolk Southern engaged in “regulatory capture” of the railway safety administrators in Washington prior to the East Palestine accident. Basic safety measures could have prevented the train derailment and chemical disaster – if Norfolk Southern and like-minded rail companies had not successfully defeated them.
It is important to take a moment to grasp just how bad a disaster we are talking about before delving into Norfolk Southern’s alleged attempt to mitigate its liability damages, as well as its actions undertaken to defeat safety regulations.
The Norfolk Southern train derailed on February 3rd. Fifty rail cars containing various toxic chemicals were overturned. New drone footage obtained by Rebel News shows an overview of the train wreck.
Emergency response teams performed a "controlled burn" of a particularly noxious chemical known as vinyl chloride, which is a carcinogen with a relatively low boiling point.
Norfolk Southern is owned by a number of major investment firms, including BlackRock, Vanguard, and JP Morgan Chase. In 2017, the rail company successfully lobbied the U.S. government to do away with mandatory safety regulations, such as pneumatic brakes and minimum staffing requirements. The rail company had recently lobbied the government to maintain these lax safety regulations.
"Before this weekend’s fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment prompted emergency evacuations in Ohio, the company helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems," according to documents reviewed by The Lever. According to the report, the train was not being regulated as a “high-hazard flammable train.”
At the same time as it was lobbying for the lax safety rules, Norfolk Southern paid executives millions and spent billions on stock buybacks, even as it shed thousands of employees despite warnings that understaffing would increase safety risks. Norfolk Southern officials also fought off a shareholder initiative that would have required executives to “assess, review, and mitigate risks of hazardous material transportation.”
The EPA in a letter identified a number of toxic chemicals released into the air and water due to the Norfolk Southern train derailment.
"Cars containing vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether are known to have been and continue to be released to the air, surface soils, and surface waters," the letter said.
The following are the basic characteristics of the above-mentioned chemicals.
Vinyl chloride: a colorless gas that is used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics and is highly flammable and decomposes to make toxic fumes. According to the National Library of Medicine, it is also carcinogenic and can cause other health issues.
Butyl acrylate: a clear liquid that is used for making paints, sealants and adhesives. It is flammable and can cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation.
Ethylhexyl acrylate: a colorless liquid used to make paints and plastics. It can cause skin and respiratory irritation and, under moderate heat, can produce hazardous vapor.
Ethylene glycol monobutyl: a colorless liquid used as a solvent for paint and inks, as well as some dry cleaning solutions. It is classed as acutely toxic, able to cause serious or permanent injury, and highly flammable. Vapors can irritate the eyes and nose, and ingestion can cause headaches and vomiting.
In addition to water quality concerns, there is also the issue of air quality hazards. Vinyl chloride, according to the New Jersey EPA, "is a CARCINOGEN in humans. There may be no safe level of exposure to a carcinogen, so all contact should be reduced to the lowest possible level."
After the train derailment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been testing the air quality, including for traces of vinyl chloride. OSHA has set “the legal airborne permissible exposure limit” to 1 ppm during an eight-hour work period or no more than five ppm “during any 15-minute work period.”
The EPA has not reported levels above its threshold of 0.5 ppm in the area. On 13 February, one sensor picked up an average concentration of 0.2 ppm, with an additional two recording a lower concentration of0.05 ppm during the testing window. Air quality reports taken on February 10 and 11 found an average concentration of 0.3 ppm in some areas.
In its latest dispatch, the EPA states that "as of February 14, EPA has assisted with the screening of 396 homes under a voluntary screening program offered to residents, and no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride were identified. 65 additional homes are scheduled for today. We are continuing to conduct 24/7 air-monitoring to ensure the health and safety of residents."
However, even after being told that it is safe to return home, local residents are concerned about local fish, wildlife, and livestock dying in alarming numbers.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the chemical spill has killed an estimated 3,500 small fish across 7.5 miles of streams, as of Wednesday.
One resident of North Lima, about 10 miles from East Palestine, told WKBN-TV of Youngstown that her five hens and rooster died suddenly in the aftermath of the chemical burn. Others have shared similar stories in the wake of the disaster.
"Don’t tell me it’s safe. Something is going on if the fish are floating in the creek," said Cathey Reese, who lives in Negley, Ohio, told NBC affiliate WPXI of Pittsburgh last week.
Jenna Giannios, 39, a wedding photographer in nearby Boardman, told NBC News she has had a persistent cough for the past week and a half. Other area residents have reported itchy eyes and skin, as well as vomiting.
"They only evacuated only 1 mile from that space, and that’s just insane to me," she said, coughing throughout the conversation. "I’m concerned with the long-term heath impact. It’s just a mess."
There are other Ohio residents concerned about the long-term impact from the ecological disaster on the agricultural industry. Many local farmers believe there may be residual effects from the disaster for years to come. There are reports that Norfolk Southern is offering $1000 "inconvenience" fees that attorneys worry may be a cynical attempt to limit its liability.
It is critical to get an accurate view of how rare such accidents truly are so that we can gauge if the nation is just having a particularly bad month for such accidents or if the nation is truly “under attack,” as some people believe.
According to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters’ March 2022 report on “Technological Disasters: Trends & Transport accidents,” such transport accidents are relatively rare, and have been decreasing since 2000.
As you can see, major transport accidents and deaths have been declining steadily and dramatically since 2000. The total for industrial and transport accidents are now under 200 incidents per year.
When it comes to rail accidents like the Norfolk Southern train derailment, the incidents are even fewer.
As you can see from the light gray line at the bottom of the chart, actual train derailments (and not minor rail incidents) run in the tens per year. This is a far cry from some of the statistics being shared on social media platforms like Twitter, estimates ranging up to 1,700 each year. This is deliberate apples-and-oranges conflation to minimize the impact of the train derailments.
So, Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican from Ohio, was more accurate in his assessment that there have been at more than a dozen actual train derailments thus far in 2023.
Meanwhile environmental activists have been very subdued about the threat posed by the ecological catastrophe. While they will loudly clamor about Polar Bears purportedly drowning melting due to melting glaciers, they apparently don’t have much to say about the East Palestine, Ohio spill endangering the long-term health of thousands of Americans, as well years of agriculture. Perhaps they would be more vocal if Donald Trump were president. That’s where we are with these phonies and frauds.
Meanwhile, Americans are concerned about deteriorating infrastructure leading to more such disasters. The statistics thus far in 2023 show that they have a right to be concerned; the uptick is not merely a figment of our imagination due to heightened sensitivity or a lack of proportion following the supply chain disruption during the Covid pandemic slowdown.
No, this was a problem that was supposed to be addressed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that was signed into law last fall. It turns out, that was more of a green slush fund than an "infrastructure" bill. Over one trillion dollars of the funding went for the "Green New Deal." And as residents in Ohio and surrounding states are finding out, in return the U.S. government gave them a raw deal.
IMHO, we are under attack with guerrilla tactics. Black Hawk down in Alabama today. Biden let activist in the admin talk him into taking out Nordstream. A 750 mile pipeline that took decades to bring online, this is an environmental disaster. Notice how Al Gore or John Kerry are not around. Greenpeace not talking about the massive amount of dead whales. Biden is 100% compromised, he's a capo for for crying out loud. I worry about our nation. The people in Ohio have been abandoned already. Have a go bag ready and stay frosty.
We lived in a meritocracy that became a kleptocracy, that's now an idiocracy filled with buffoons at every social strata . You cannot run a complex society with idiots e.g., retards that believe men can get pregnant or think that an untested vaccine should be forced on kids for a flu with 99.99% survival rate.