A Plastic Chemical Caused a Toxic Mess in Ohio Last Year. Now, the EPA Is Eyeing Regulation.
Joseph Winters | January 9, 2024 | Grist
In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency flagged vinyl chloride — a hazardous chemical that’s used to make PVC pipes and other plastic products — for further assessment and potential restrictions under the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal chemical safety law. But it’s taken nearly a decade for the agency to begin that assessment.
The EPA announced last month that it’s launching a 12-month evaluation period for five hazardous plastic- and petrochemical-related substances, including vinyl chloride. It’s the first step in a potentially yearslong process that could lead to a nationwide ban.
“It’s very welcome news, and something that seems so common-sense,” said Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. The move is long overdue, she added — vinyl chloride has been known to be a human carcinogen since 1974. Chronic exposure is linked to liver cancer, and high concentrations may cause lung and kidney irritation and central nervous effects like memory loss.
Many of these effects are documented in animals, too, suggesting that vinyl chloride that gets released into the environment poses risks to ecosystems.
Although the health and environmental risks from vinyl chloride have been known for decades, the chemical exploded into public consciousness last February when a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The train had been carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, along with a handful of other chemicals like butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate. These chemicals spilled into the soil and groundwater, contaminating some bodies of water and killing thousands of fish.
The vinyl chloride that didn’t spill was burned off by first responders in an effort to avoid an explosive chemical reaction; vinyl chloride is highly flammable. Experts later questioned whether that intentional burning was necessary, and it may have contributed to adverse health effects for East Palestine residents, including headaches, coughs, and skin irritation.
Jess Conard, Appalachia director for the nonprofit Beyond Plastics and a resident of East Palestine, said the disaster made her “extremely ill” and affected the rest of her family, too. In the months following the derailment, one of her kids was diagnosed with asthma, and her husband began taking medication for worsening migraines.
“We’ve had no option to test our bodies for chemicals, no place to call to report symptoms that we feel are related to the derailment,” Conard told Grist.
