Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday morning, nearly three weeks after a train derailment and chemical fallout devastated the small town whose residents have expressed frustration, saying the issue has received minimal attention from the Biden administration.
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 dark smoke visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
