The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics (NASEM) is highlighting calls from stakeholders and experts for better data-gathering and more communication between EPA, other agencies and communities in the wake of the 2023 East Palestine, OH, chemical spill, along with calls for more specific short- and long-term mitigation planning.
NASEM on Jan. 8 published its “proceedings” from a Nov. 6-7 workshop on the train derailment and spill.
While the report does not make any formal findings or recommendations, it emphasizes key elements of the panelists’ discussion of data technology and monitoring and calls for increased testing in order to determine impacts on human health and the surrounding environment of the catastrophe.
“Discussions centered on perspectives on the impact of the incident, hazardous material exposures and risks, risk characterization and communication, and challenges in and strategies for addressing and monitoring long-term community health impacts,” NASEM’s summary says.
The workshop aimed “to explore potential health research and surveillance priorities arising from the train derailment and material hazards spill that occurred in East Palestine,” and saw several former EPA scientists, as well as academic experts, urge regulators to adopt a more holistic approach to exposure data collection and risk communication when they respond to future disasters.
It followed heavy scrutiny and criticism of EPA’s spill response, including pressure from lawmakers and citizen groups to accelerate the cleanup process and to ramp up testing for several contaminants including cancer-causing dioxins. Some groups have also pushed the agency to assess and regulate risks from vinyl chloride, the most prominent chemical involved in the spill -- a process it is now laying groundwork for under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
NASEM’s “proceedings” briefing details the panelists’ calls to build communication and trust between communities and government agencies “while transitioning from response to long-term research and surveillance.”
For instance, it notes that speakers called for tracking exposed individuals through registries set up to identify health impacts from chemical releases; education and training for healthcare “providers to monitor and address environmental health issues”; and incorporating trauma-informed health interventions into exposure assessments.
For chemical monitoring and exposures, panelists suggested that authorities use diverse biomarkers, track exposure pathways, and share all findings from those efforts with affected communities, NASEM notes.
The report also emphasizes that the speakers focused on long-term monitoring as well, with calls for expanding research and data collection, “[m]itigating potential damage due to exposures and developing multigenerational tracking given the possibility of latent effects emerging in those exposed during vulnerable periods of development,” and tracking exposures to chemical mixtures in particular.
More broadly, it says, they urged regulators to focus on “bridging disconnects impeding public health” in communications with -- and transparency for -- affected communities.
Data Gaps
Much of NASEM’s summary emphasizes the panelists’ focus on shortcomings in EPA and other authorities’ data collection following the East Palestine spill, which they said impacted mitigation efforts as a whole.
For example, “Mark Durno, the response coordinator for EPA’s Region V, reported that extensive air monitoring and sampling was conducted after the East Palestine train derailment using stationary monitors, mobile labs, and volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis methods, with more than 115 million measurements collected,” NASEM wrote.
“However, he acknowledged limitations in the ability of indoor screening techniques to detect certain chemicals such as butyl acrylate at low levels,” the briefing says, adding that “detectors could not reliably detect butyl acrylate below certain low concentration thresholds that are relevant for evaluating community health impacts.”
The summary also highlights difficulties that the speakers said arose in managing the flow of information between government agencies, media and the local community, in addition to challenges “in assessing health risks from cumulative exposures,” “limited authoritative sources that quantify risks from specific dioxins,” and “substantial data gaps” that “restrict[ed] precision in cumulative risk quantification.”
It quotes panelist Albert Presto, a research professor in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, who “cautioned” that although EPA found no vapor intrusion of hydrogen chloride and vinyl chloride at approximately 100 East Palestine homes, “commercial canister tests often provide limited context on the origins of detected compounds.”
Both Durno and Presto recommended “rapid deployment of advanced instrumentation and measuring as many compounds as possible at high time resolution,” it says, with Durno highlighting the importance of early sample collection “to identify key contaminants and advised carrying out proper planning and quality assurance for defensible, meaningful data.”
They also “encouraged quick multi-faceted air sampling and monitoring using conventional and emerging technologies, and they said there had been gaps in the effort to rapid communicating complex datasets to the public in readily understandable formats and contexts.”
And panelist Andrew Whelton, a professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University, “urged data transparency and collaboration so that affected residents can benefit from monitoring efforts.”
It also lists calls for EPA and other authorities to compile “accessible toxicity data” and offer “meaningful community engagement from diverse perspectives,” through analytical methods in combination with biomonitoring, and “metabolomics and exposomics research.”
Accessibility & Reliability
The report further emphasizes calls for better risk communication; several panelists said EPA should make toxicity data more available and understandable for community members, and use community outreach to ensure residents are aware of it.
It notes that Weihsueh Chiu, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University and a former EPA scientist, said the agency should seek to translate its air monitoring measurements from East Palestine “into exposure and risk estimates.”
Speakers said sources of toxicity data should be made available “to ensure reliability,” despite what they conceded are persistent challenges such as measuring mixture levels.
Chiu also mentioned cheminformatics tools for “rapid gathering of chemical hazard and safety data to inform emergency response and risk assessment,” through tools such as EPA’s CompTox Chemical Dashboard and Cheminformatics Modules. That could help “guide actions” by regulators, he said. -- Sarah Mattalian (smattalian@iwpnews.com)
