East Palestine train derailment

[W8taminute]

I can understand why some people might think, "What's the big deal?" with this derailment.  The media hasn't been giving it the attention they would give to any train wreck that would rivet people to the tv. 

[Gusington]

^The paranoid part of me thinks that lack of media coverage is intentional.

[FarAway Sooner]

I guess I've grown so weary of the media trumpeting every little thing that comes along as a new and pending disaster that I've not paid THAT much attention to this. 

The train company's behavior seems to have been pretty appalling, and I get the environmental problems, but do we really  any idea how much this is going to affect people's health outside the immediate area?  I've heard a long list of nasty potential side effects, but cancer has been the only life-threatening condition that I've heard, and nobody's been talking incidence rates for any of those side effects.

I guess I just view media today as selling fear and outrage.  Anything else contained in their product--including facts--is purely coincidental.  It makes it a lot harder to figure out what's going on in the world. 

Or in East Palestine, OH and that stretch of PA that is only a few hundred yards away...

[bobarossa]

^The paranoid part of me thinks that lack of media coverage is intentional.

There has certainly been no lack of media coverage in Ohio!

And the black smoke is from a purposely set fire.  The tanks were going to explode and spew the toxic chemicals all over town.  I believe burning off the chemicals was believed to be a way to reduce the toxicity of the chemicals.  Everybody was supposed to evacuate from the direction the smoke was blowing.

[Sir Slash]

I'm thinking cancer as a long-term side effect is bad enough by itself. You can expect other side effects to people and animals, and thus back to people again, for many years to come. And then there's the Ohio River which may deliver contamination to half the Mid-Atlantic. But, yeah, as soon as the fire's out, the TV cameras tend to go elsewhere.

I expect every Personal Injury Attorney worth their salt is already on their way to East Palestine.

[Windigo]

Corporations pollute our world in a million different ways--I'm not so sure why this particular train derailment has everybody so exercised.

I wonder what will be next?  A second invasion of Murder Hornets?  Chinese-made cell phone components that might, under very specific circumstances, cause long-term impotence?  Or perhaps a previously undiscovered affiliation between the NHL and anonymous Russian oligarchs?

I get how this is very serious news to the people living near the accident.  Aside from the corporate malfeasance angle, I don't get why it's transfixed the American attention span for so long.

The magnitude of the event? The long-lasting aftereffects like increased cancer and mortality rates and birth defects?  The role deregulation has played into this? The fact that 1000s of absolutely innocent people are directly and tragicly affected?

[W8taminute]

^The paranoid part of me thinks that lack of media coverage is intentional.

I'm in the same camp as you.

[Windigo]

^The paranoid part of me thinks that lack of media coverage is intentional.

I'm in the same camp as you.

Given the politicized nature of media these days.... sure, why not?

[Groggy]

Corporations pollute our world in a million different ways--I'm not so sure why this particular train derailment has everybody so exercised.

I wonder what will be next?  A second invasion of Murder Hornets?  Chinese-made cell phone components that might, under very specific circumstances, cause long-term impotence?  Or perhaps a previously undiscovered affiliation between the NHL and anonymous Russian oligarchs?

I get how this is very serious news to the people living near the accident.  Aside from the corporate malfeasance angle, I don't get why it's transfixed the American attention span for so long.

The magnitude of the event? The long-lasting aftereffects like increased cancer and mortality rates and birth defects?  The role deregulation has played into this? The fact that 1000s of absolutely innocent people are directly and tragicly affected?

Not to mention the nearly 45,000 animals that have died (so far) as a result of the derailment. The ecological cost and human suffering will be felt for decades.

[JasonPratt]

That's gonna end up being a dead town like those coal-mining towns where the seams caught on fire and are still burning decades later...

[Gusington]

^Centralia, PA?

[Sir Slash]

A train derailment one county over from where I live today (Manatee County). Also containing hazardous materials, no nuke orders yet. 

[FarAway Sooner]

Have we heard any reports of the incidence rates for these dire developments that are being forecast?  The only permanent one mentioned in the initial report I heard was cancer.  The others were bad, really  unpleasant, but more in a class with explosive diarrhea.

I'm not saying it's not a huge problem for the people who live nearby.  I'm not even saying it's not a huge problem for others.  But comparing it to Chernobyl (which the WHO estimates caused about 9,000 cancer fatalities) based on a list of possible side effects just seems like we're going off half-cocked.

Media sells fear.  If there's fear to be sold and a story to generate outrage, one side or the other of the mainstream media establishment will tell it. 

I'm not saying that there's nothing to see here.  I'm just looking to see if anybody has specifics besides a list of the possible side effects. 

[Gusington]

^Part of the issue is the absence of media coverage since it happened.

[Sir Slash]

True that! Chernobyl caused thousands of people to leave their homes and possessions at a moments notice and never return. The site will be contaminated for a thousand years or so. East Palestine will remain contaminated for decades likely, and people will still live there though much of the area will be virtually unlivable for much of that. In the end, the higher Death Toll we won't know for many years.

In one case the government the people rely on tells them, 'Don't go there ever again' and the other, 'It's perfectly safe to stay right where you are. Don't worry about it'. Which is worse? I don't know but we will figure it out in a generation or two.

The EPA Administrator is now threatening Norfolk-Southern with massive fines if they don't completely clean-up the site so I guess all that money they threw at politicians didn't go very far.