CDC Advised Health Care Providers Not to Test East Palestine Residents for Chemical Illnesses, Lawsuit Alleges

Newsnation reported this week that the CDC advised local health care providers in East Palestine, OH, not to test local residents for chemical illnesses after the town was exposed to a toxic plume from a “controlled burn” after the Norfolk Southern train derailment in 2023. A lawsuit has been filed against Norfolk Southern and more than 50 other defendants by 793 residents of East Palestine, alleging a conspiracy by Vanguard, BlackRock, Mercy Health, and Quest to deny health care to the East Palestine residents.

In addition, FOIA documents from 2024 show FEMA official Jim McPherson stating, “The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP is not zero.” This acknowledgment by McPherson contradicts the statements of other officials in the Biden administration, including EPA coordinator Michael Regan and Emergency Response Official Mark Durno, who both downplayed the seriousness of the harm caused to the residents exposed to toxic levels of dioxins and other chemicals.

Scott Smith, a whistleblower client of the Government Accountability Project, told The HighWire last year about an EPA cover-up in East Palestine, including cherry-picked testing locations and operating as the “public relations arm of Norfolk Southern.” Smith has visited East Palestine 27 times and conducted 31 rounds of testing independent of the EPA and Norfolk Southern. The latest revelations about the CDC guiding healthcare providers not to test residents add more leverage to the argument that officials within the government have aided the railroad company in diminishing real harms and cancers. On the day a “controlled burn” was conducted in 2023, a toxic plume was released over 16 states and part of Canada.

On February 3, 2023, the train operated by Norfolk Southern with vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine. On February 6, “officials released toxic chemicals” as reported by CBS News, otherwise known as the “controlled burn.” On February 8, the evacuation order was lifted. NPR reported that residents could “safely return” to their homes following air quality testing and statements by East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick and EPA official James Justice.

“It was not acute exposure; it was chronic exposure,” Smith said in an interview with News Nation’s Elizabeth Vargas on Friday. “It was ongoing exposure with the remediation and the cleanup. You hear shelter-in-place, that’s just not true. It’s called forced exposure in place. They should have permanently been evacuated, or at least been given the option. Instead, it was forced exposure over time courtesy of the very own government that is supposed to protect its citizens.”

In February, resident Krissy Hylton told The HighWire that she knows 60 people who experience symptoms whenever they are in the East Palestine area two years after the toxic chemical plume swept over the region. She also knows four people who developed lung cancer: one man with breast cancer in both breasts, two people in their 50s with dementia, and one with brain tumors. A baby was born without sinus cavities.

A lawsuit was filed earlier this year alleging seven wrongful deaths caused by the chemical exposure. Another lawsuit by dog breeders alleged the incident caused 119 dog deaths and several severe birth defects, including a dog born with two heads attached to one body.

Hylton was the same resident who can be heard on an audio recording with Durno released by Status Coup News last November. In the recording, Durno admits mistakes by the EPA in response to the chemical disaster but downplayed the causality of long-term health issues.

“They came back into town, and they smelled chemicals, right?” Durno said. “Well, if you smell chemicals, then you’re exposed to chemicals, right? Even though they’re well below our action levels, they’re still there, and you’re still exposed, right? If I could go back and change one thing – when we set up the temporary relocation program, which we did a month after the derailment, I wish we would have done that earlier on.”

Durno acknowledged that Norfolk Southern should not have claimed the area was safe even though the EPA testing showed levels below the agency’s “actionable levels.” When Hylton told Durno that residents were not sick before being exposed to these chemicals, he said there was no validated link. “Well, that’s what you said, right?” Durno said. “But again, you need to be able to – there needs to be a validated link, right? And we just don’t have it.”

These are not the first admissions that the unprecedented stew of chemicals unleashed on the small village had significant health effects. CDC Official Dr. Arthur Chang told residents in a 2023 town hall that there is no way to remove dioxins or vinyl chloride from the body. “We may not know how to treat to get rid of vinyl chloride from the body, but we know how to treat those cancers,” Chang said.

Residents have advocated for more assistance with chronic health conditions and relocation expenses. The Biden administration has been criticized for the actions by officials to downplay concerns and not provide adequate resources to support the community in the aftermath of a controlled burn. The HighWire reported about NGOs connected to the Biden administration that were brought forth with selected residents while other residents have said they were not being heard by the administration.

Still, the Trump administration hasn’t fared any better in the eyes of the residents despite claims by EPA administration Lee Zeldin and Vice President J.D. Vance that the residents would not be forgotten. They both visited East Palestine in February on the two-year anniversary of the derailment. Residents are still living in East Palestine without the means to relocate and obtain the health care they need for the chronic conditions that developed in the aftermath of the disaster.

Vargas of News Nation asked Smith if Vance and Zeldin have made good on their promise to hold Norfolk Southern accountable and push for improved rail safety.

“No, they haven’t, but I’m always optimistic to give people a chance and sit down with them,” Smith said. “I would love to sit down with administrator Zeldin. I don’t think he knows 5% of the EPA manipulation and deception that went on, and I would love to directly inform him.”