The Norfolk Southern 100-car train derailment and subsequent toxic chemical fallout in East Palestine, Ohio, caused nearly half of the U.S. government investigators to experience symptoms of illness while studying the health impacts, authorities said.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN last week that seven of the 15-member crew, which included members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, began feeling symptoms while surveying town residents’ homes near the contaminated areas.

“Symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon, and everyone resumed work on survey data collection within 24 hours,” a CDC spokesperson told the network. “Impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects.”

Local and state authorities previously evacuated all residents within one mile of the February 3 derailment and started a controlled burn of substances on the vehicle. Five of those train cars emitted vinyl chloride, a human carcinogen used to manufacture PVC, and formed massive plumes of black smoke visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Residents have since raised the alarm over health symptoms they experienced after the controlled burn.

Before working from their hotels, some group members began experiencing sore throats, headaches, coughing, and nausea, which mirrored the symptoms reported by many of the town’s residents near the derailment site. (Read more from “Half of U.S. Investigators Fell Ill While Studying East Palestine Train Derailment: Report” HERE)

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A senior researcher at Texas A&M University expressed concern that the EPA and other government agencies are neglecting to provide full information about the risks posed to residents of East Palestine, Ohio, in the wake of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical fallout.

Local and state authorities previously evacuated all residents within one mile of the February 3 derailment and started a controlled burn of industrial chemicals on the vehicle to decrease the risk of an explosion, which could have sent shrapnel throughout the small town. Vinyl chloride, a known human carcinogen used to manufacture PVC, was emitted from five train cars in the form of massive plumes of black smoke visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Analysts from the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center and the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies at Carnegie Mellon University announced last week that nine of the 50 chemicals the EPA said were present on the derailed train have higher concentrations than normal in East Palestine. They were especially concerned with above-normal levels of acrolein, a substance with a pungent odor that is highly toxic when inhaled, and warned of health concerns if above-normal levels of benzene, naphthalene, and vinyl chloride persist in the area.

The findings came after the EPA said that air and water quality tests have not produced cause for concern, while state-level authorities in both Ohio and Pennsylvania reached similar conclusions.

Ivan Rusyn, the director of the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center and the chair of the Texas A&M Interdisciplinary Faculty of Toxicology, told The Daily Wire that the officials “did not provide the full context into which the actual data collected by them could be placed.” He said that researchers from the two universities translated “the raw data posted by the agencies online” to determine the effects of continual inhalation and found that some of the chemicals would pose dangers if they persist for months or years. (Read more from “Researcher Worries Government Is Wrongly Declaring ‘Safety’ Near Ohio Train Crash” HERE)

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