‘We need answers’: Families near East Palestine train derailment site concerned for health, homes

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Families within the East Palestine evacuation zone and beyond have major concerns about their health and their homes. While the EPA and DEP is assuring them their air and water is safe, they told 11 News they just don’t buy it.

>>>>Vinyl chloride: What we know about the toxic chemical released at East Palestine train derailment

“We need answers and we’re not getting them,” East Palestine neighbor, Eric Cozza.

Eric Cozza lives .3 miles from the train derailment site with his fiancee and three foster children.

“It’s a slap into my face every time the train blows its whistle,” Cozza added.

He says he’s not getting answers about the short or long-term effects of exposure to toxic chemicals.  Cozza says he, his fiancee and several neighbors have symptoms from rashes to sore throats to runny eyes. He tells Channel 11 he’s most worried about his fiancee.

“She has an autoimmune disease,” Cozza added. “She just went to the hospital yesterday. She’s waiting on toxicology to come back because anything she touches she gets a rash. Everyone has the same symptoms. Our fish are dying.”

The EPA, DEP and Norfolk Southern all report there have been no concerning air, soil or water samples taken to date.

Michael O’Shea is a lawyer representing more than 40 families.

“We’re not even out of the dugout yet to use a baseball analogy, about where this thing is going to go,” O’Shea tells Channel 11.

He’s knowledgeable about vinyl chloride because of a previous case in Ashtabula, Ohio, where employees at GenCorp were exposed to the carcinogenic chemical at work.

“It has a certain latency period to it,” O’Shea added.  “From the time you get exposed to it to the time you manifest relatively serious medical conditions could be as much as a decade or even more.  This particular carcinogenic chemical creates in many cases a thing called angiosarcoma which is a unique cancer of the liver. Almost always fatal.”

For now, neighbors say they’re battling this disaster on their own.

“We’re going to have to fight this as a whole, as a town,” Cozza added.

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