Federal officials are now going door to door all over East Palestine, Ohio, amid fears of a looming public health crisis following the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials on February 3.
President Biden has ordered the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct door-to-door health surveys. A team of about 19 CDC staff members will be asking residents of the town to fill out the 30-minute surveys. Later, they will also be including residents of neighboring towns and first responders.
The presidential directive comes almost a month after the train derailment caused the release of toxic substances into the air and the soil. Weeks after the crash, residents near the site are now reportedly experiencing some bizarre and worrying symptoms.
One of the residents, 40-year-old Wade Lovett, said his usually low voice had become high-pitched and that he has had trouble breathing after the incident. Lovett, an auto detailer who lives around 15 minutes away from the derailment site with his fiancée, said that the problems keep worsening. He believes the reason he has been affected was that he worked near the site.
Meanwhile, other residents have reported coughing up gray mucus and developing rashes and sunburn-like injuries believed to be due to chemical exposure.
The chemicals released by the crash have long-lasting effects, so the symptoms might be just the beginning for East Palestine residents.
Melissa Blake, who lives near the site, told NBC News that she had started coughing up grayish mucus and struggling with breathing a couple of days after the incident. Doctors diagnosed her with acute bronchitis, which they said was caused by chemical fumes.
Authorities are yet to definitively link the symptoms to the derailment, but exposure to the chemicals can lead to chemical and industrial bronchitis. Some of the symptoms include heavy coughing and coughing up dark-colored mucus, chest pain, difficulty breathing and wheezing.
The wheezing and squeaky voice could well be caused by air being forced to pass through inflamed airways.
Ayla and Tyler Antoniazzi live almost a mile from the site and said that their young daughters developed itchy rashes and other health issues after the incident. They are probably not the only ones thinking of moving out of East Palestine.
