Pete Buttigieg And Chernobyl in Ohio
I guess if you are going to be the worst President in American history you want a Transportation Secretary that is equally bad. Pete Buttigieg, the man who ran for President on a solid record of mediocrity and being gay, certainly fits that bill. Ask the people of East Palestine, Ohio.
Last Friday a train derailed in East Palestine, a small town near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Fifty cars went off the tracks. Ten of those carried various types of hazardous chemicals. Five of those cars were carrying liquid vinyl chloride. That comes out to 1,000,000 pounds of this dangerous toxic substance.
That was bad enough. Then Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation decided to make it much worse. Authorities made the decision to burn the vinyl chloride to prevent derailed tanker cars from exploding.
When vinyl chloride burns it turns into hydrogen chloride. When hydrogen chloride enters the atmosphere it bonds with water vapor and forms hydrochloric acid. That means hundreds of thousands of pounds of acid have now been released into the environment.
There is no precedent for an event of this type on this scale. The only previous similar incident involved the derailment of a single tanker car in New Jersey, but in that case, the authorities did not burn the spilled chemical.
Where is Buttigieg, our Secretary of Transportation? Busy with other matters. In public announcements and comments recently, he has talked about the dangers posed by an excess of white people working in construction. He has also had time to talk about a book called “Song of Achilles” a gay rewrite of the Iliad. He hasn’t said a word about East Palestine, Ohio.
The area surrounding the burn is already feeling the impact of the release of the immense amount of acid in question. Fish are dying. Farm animals are dying. Contamination of the Ohio River has now been reported as far as West Virginia. The Ohio River feeds into the Mississippi.
The EPA’s own website provides this information about the impact of hydrochloric acid on human health.
“Health Hazard Information Acute Effects: Hydrochloric acid is corrosive to the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes. Acute inhalation exposure may cause coughing, hoarseness, inflammation and ulceration of the respiratory tract, chest pain, and pulmonary edema in humans. Acute oral exposure may cause corrosion of the mucous membranes, esophagus, and stomach, with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea reported in humans. Dermal contact may produce severe burns, ulceration, and scarring.
Pulmonary irritation, lesions of the upper respiratory tract, and laryngeal and pulmonary edema have been reported in rodents acutely exposed by inhalation. Acute animal tests in rats, mice, and rabbits, have demonstrated hydrochloric acid to have moderate to high acute toxicity from inhalation and moderate acute toxicity from oral exposure.”
The Virginia Department of Health has this to say about hydrochloric acid and its effects on humans.
“What are the health effects of hydrochloric acid?
Hydrochloric acid can produce hydrogen chloride vapors, which have a biting and irritating odor. In high concentrations in air hydrogen chloride can make it difficult to breathe, and at very high concentrations continuing to breathe it can be fatal. Hydrochloric acid in contact with skin or other tissues can cause chemical burns that can be severe. Hydrochloric acid in the eyes can cause blindness. The severity of the burns depends upon the concentration of the acid and the amount of time it is left in contact with the tissues. Concentrated hydrochloric acid will burn instantly, but dilute acid may take minutes to damage the skin.”
This is by any estimation a massive environmental disaster. We have no precedent for what just happened and what is about to happen. Huge quantities of a very dangerous acid have been released into the air and have entered our water supply.
Nothing is being done. People in Ohio are being advised to simply return to their homes. Downstream from this disaster, there is no indication of concern about drinking water and the environment. The plan apparently, as with so many things under the Biden administration, is to act like nothing is wrong and hope people lose interest.
That may prove to be a little hard to manage when animals continue to die and people start showing up in emergency rooms. Pete Buttigieg and his Department of Transportation just gave us our very own Chernobyl in Ohio. Act like you don’t notice.
Does anyone remember the Gold King Mine disaster in Colorado? (2015) Another three letter agency released 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the Cement Creek. With government oversight like this who needs enemies?
Holy shit.