Agency weighs review in Ohio derailment

WASHINGTON — The administration of United States President Joe Biden has said it may soon begin a formal evaluation of risks posed by vinyl chloride, the cancer-causing chemical that burned in a towering plume of toxic black smoke following a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.

The Environmental Protection Agency is set to review risks posed by a handful of chemicals later this year, and is considering chemicals used for plastic production as a key benchmark. Vinyl chloride is among a range of chemicals eligible for review, and the EPA "could begin a risk evaluation on vinyl chloride in the near future", the agency said.

If selected, the agency would study vinyl chloride to determine whether it poses an "unreasonable risk to human health or the environment", a process that would take at least three years.

Environmental and public health activists welcomed the development, saying the EPA should have banned vinyl chloride years ago.

"If one positive thing can come out of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine... it is for the Biden administration to use their existing legal authority to start the process to ban vinyl chloride," said Judith Enck, a former regional EPA administrator and president of Beyond Plastics, an advocacy group in Vermont that seeks to end plastic pollution.

'Chilling warning'

Heather McTeer Toney, another former regional EPA administrator, who leads a separate group called Beyond Petrochemicals, said, " (The Ohio) accident was a chilling warning that we must act now to ban petrochemicals like vinyl chloride and keep communities safe from known carcinogens."

Three men who have worked as Republican political operatives have agreed to pay more than $50,000 in restitution and penalties in Ohio for their roles in operating a phony charity that collected cash purportedly to help victims of the East Palestine train derailment.

The settlement, announced by Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Thursday, requires Isaiah Wartman and Luke Mahoney of WAMA Strategies in Delaware to pay more than $22,000 to a local food bank, plus $3,000 in investigative costs and fees.

Under the deal, Michael Peppel, co-founder of the fraudulent charity, Ohio Clean Water Fund, must pay a $25,000 civil penalty and agree to a lifetime ban on starting, running or soliciting for any charity in the state.

According to Yost's investigation, Wartman and Mahoney were fundraisers for the fake charity, which collected nearly $149,000 from donors in the aftermath of the derailment that caused continuing harm to the community. Toxic chemicals released by the crash led to resident evacuations and lingering health worries.

Agencies Via Xinhua