The East Palestine Train Derailment Health Research Program

On February 3, 2023, a 150-car freight train derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio. Eleven of the 52 derailed rail cars contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, which were released into the air, water, and soil. A controlled release and burn of five cars containing over 880,000 lbs of vinyl chloride was conducted on February 6, 2023. Residents were told it was safe to return to their homes on February 8th. In collaboration with community residents, our team launched the East Palestine Health Tracking Study on April 11th, 2023 and has been collecting reported health symptoms, including stress, for two years on over 300 East Palestine residents. We have identified a startlingly high rate of PTSD which has persisted over time, and an immune profile indicating immune dysfunction. Thus, our team will expand the cohort in East Palestine and include create the infrastructure in partnership with the community to identify the long-term health effects from the disaster. We will include a comparison community to further examine the effect of the disaster on this Appalachian population