We must demand dioxin tests in East Palestine and for many miles around

My coverage of the dioxin train wreck will continue tomorrow. Tonight, I have a public appeal: we must speak up on behalf of E. Palestine residents and demand proper testing after this calamity.

The molecule: 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin.

Update, Sat. Feb. 18 — We’ve been trying to determine who is responsible for the decision to dump and burn the vinyl chloride. First, EPA’s National Response Center was notified of the derailment and spill about two hours after it happened. So they are in a “knew or should have known” position regarding what was happening immediately.

Up until Monday. Feb. 6, there appears to have been an evacuation recommendation, but on that day the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania upgraded it to an evacuation order, to accommodate the dump and burn decision.

The question is, at what point did the known degredation byproducts enter the scenario? Was dioxin in the discussion? This is what we are now working to establish; it may take a while, as we will need to use the FOIA. — efc

Dear Friend and Reader:

My coverage and analysis of the Feb. 3 East Palestine dioxin train wreck continues tomorrow night; we are putting the final touches on the articles. They will be distributed by Planet Waves and by Substack, and I will devote the whole Planet Waves FM program to this incident on Friday night before 10 pm ET.

For now, I have a request: please do what you can to demand dioxin testing in the region of this disaster, particularly in and around East Palestine. Comments on articles and social media asking about the dioxin levels will raise the profile of the issue and send the signal that the public is hip to the situation.

I can tell you one thing: putting pressure on governmental authorities can get results. I have seen this work many times. But the pressure has to be there, from the public and the media. That’s us.

Note to other journalists: I am available for interviews.

East Palestine in happer times.

Their Lives Have Been Overturned

The government has gone into “let’s get back to normal” mode.

When a chemical release like this happens in someone’s area, their life is overturned and there is no back to normal. There is, perhaps, a long, long healing process, but it’s difficult to trust the air and water ever again.

Something similar to this happened to my community in 1991, and it was a living nightmare. I have maintained an entire website devoted to those events. (If you get some kind of warning, it’s safe to ignore it.)

I am grateful that God has given me the role of journalist because at least I have the means to seek an understanding of outrageous events, and to tell you what I learn.

Most people who are affected by this have little idea how bad it is. They know there are chemicals, but there is no chemical like dioxin. They are being lied to, and they want their lives back. They live in flyover country, and the so-called elites don’t give a damn about them.

We are looking closely at the extremely limited coverage of the Feb. 3 train wreck, and I am checking each article for the word “dioxin.” With one exception, it’s never there. So let’s push this issue to the top of search results and social media trends.

This affects us all: there are 75,000 farms in Ohio, 90% of them family owned. We in the U.S. all eat food products from Ohio. It matters for many more reasons than that.

This was the scene at SUNY New Paltz the day after a 1991 dioxin release on the campus. The man in the gray coat is Peter Haughton, who was the campus physician. It seems that he alone understands the gravity of the problem.

You Can Read my Previous Coverage At These Links

This is my primary article about the event, and an omnibus dioxin resource that I update regularly. This includes a succinct history of dioxin back to the beginning, in 1949.

Please listen to this interview with Carol van Strum, who taught me the issue and provided most of my documents. She is a force of nature and a beautiful human being.

We did an interview last May where Carol described how she went through her own East Palestine in the late 1970s and forever devoted herself to the issue.

This is my comprehensive history of PCBs with crucial dioxin issues addressed, published in Sierra in 1994, called Conspiracy of Silence.

Thank you for making use of these resources that I have developed and maintained over many years, preserving them for just such a moment.

And please help us fund this coverage by becoming a paying member to this Substack. It’s an entirely different publication from the astrology service Planet Waves, with its own mission and purpose. You can donate directly to our organization here.

Thank you for doing your part. I’ll be back with you soon.

With love,