The creeks around East Palestine, Ohio, were so badly contaminated by last year’s disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became sick during the cleanup.
Workers who reported headaches and nausea — while shooting compressed air into the creek bed, which releases chemicals from the sediment and water — were sent back to their hotels to rest, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press about their illnesses.
The findings were not released to the public last spring, despite residents’ concerns about the potential health effects of exposure to the long list of chemicals that spilled and burned after the disaster. The workers’ symptoms, as described in the report, are consistent with what Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers going door-to-door in town had reported shortly after the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment.
Since then some residents have also reported unexplained rashes, asthma and other respiratory problems, and serious diseases including male breast cancer.
Researchers are …