It could have been a simple incident. On February 3, a train carrying flammable chemicals derailed in East Palestine, a small town in Ohio, the fault of a defective axle. The derailment caused a huge fire, forcing the authorities, due to the risk of explosion, to evacuate nearly half of the residents of the village of 4,800 souls. To avoid this danger, it was decided to carry out discharges “controlled” of one of the compounds in the cargo, vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic chemical used in the manufacture of plastic. This released toxic fumes into the air.
Its dispersal in nature arouses both fear and anxiety among residents, who were authorized, from February 8, to return to their homes “safely”. And for good reason, vinyl chloride is a highly flammable colorless gas, used to make a variety of plastic products and packaging materials, which can, when burned, create phosgene, a very toxic substance which has been used as a chemical weapon during WWI.