...is the fact that nothing will change, and it is just a matter of time before this happens again, and again, and again.
Our media barely report, and then under report the seriousness. It may as well not exist, except for all the harm that will continue for decades.
But the executives and shareholders have record profits, so everything is fantastic, absolutely no reason to change.
It requires attention to detail combined with political will to improve safety.
The national media isn't very good at representing issues outside of major cities. Events like this are largely unimportant to people living in the places they sell their stories to. In a way, you're not asking the media to change, you're asking Americans to care about those areas at all.
The media chases clicks and attention.
News reading Americans rather read about “Is it China or aliens?”, the war in Ukraine, earthquake in Middle East and the Super Bowl than small-town Ohio.
In this instance, the simplest explanation really does seem to be financial conflict of interest.
1. ”China conducts surveillance on US” gets plenty of clicks/attention. Just look at tiktok, and before that huawei/ZTE.
2. In this case specifically it's not just "China conducts surveillance on US", it's also arguably violating the territorial integrity of the US. For americans that's strikes much closer to home than shadowy hackers hacking from china.
Does it? As far as I can tell, the “TikTok spies on people” stories have all been met with “yeah, so does Facebook”. This is across pretty much the entire political spectrum. It seems to me that only the political/media class actually find it significant.
While it’s obviously too early to have non-anecdotal data on this, my instincts tell me very few people actually care or find it surprising that China “violated the territorial integrity of the U.S.” as if we’re not constantly flying drones over other world powers. It’s just standard operating procedure at this point.
Do we know that? We mainly just know they weren’t shot down over one.
The lead story has been balloons and aliens since before the derailment.
It doesn’t help that there’s still a war in Ukraine, a earthquake in the Middle East and the Super Bowl just happened.
It’s for these reasons that a “small-town Ohio issue” is further down on the media list of priorities.
Apparently the rail operator lobbied against safety measures that could have mitigated the impact of this disaster. They probably have a decent PR budget... https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rule...
The natural state of human affairs is crony corruption, plain and simple; currently we allow multiple corrupt states (local, county, state, each corporation's internal affairs, etc...). We should just admit our natural corruption and observe that only one can be king, and that king already exists: our federal government. The Federal government ought to make it their primary mission, as the ruling top dog in our corrupt society, do destroy all other corrupt operations stealing from them.
We are an immature, petty civilization. Let's admit our immaturity, and perhaps mature a bit as a result.
"Norfolk Southern, the railway company responsible for an apocalyptic plume of gas rose over East Palestine, Ohio, has offered a $25,000 donation to assist the area’s nearly 5,000 residents who were ordered to evacuate their homes, or face death"
Serious financial implications are the only thing that will cause behavior shift in large organizations.
[1] https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1624749208174567424
I read this as $25,000 in total not per person.
Yet that's what they did.
If Northern Southern were to feel this incident in their pocket book, they might stop lobbying to gut safety regulations... However, it's very clear that neither legislative, judicial, executive or media positions give a flying fuck to stop this; in fact, they'll go to extreme lengths such as breaking strikes and media coordination to keep the status quo.
So it will happen again, and again, until one day it actually does fuck up a major city - and even then, the people responsible will probably be insulated from consequences.
https://apnews.com/article/rail-accidents-evacuations-ohio-h...
https://www.fastcompany.com/90848025/ohio-train-derailment-t...
Livestock is dying and getting sick in the area[1], including fish in rivers[2].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_chloride
[1] https://nypost.com/2023/02/10/animals-sick-dying-near-east-p...
[2] https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/east-palestine-train-de...
In this instance, the risks to be worried about is far more than just cancer. And it isn't exactly comparable to a career in a vinyl chloride factory because factories don't typically have these production chemicals ablaze and mixed with whatever else was in the train wreckage, seeping into the surrounding earth, water and air. Before even speculating on the undetermined adverse health effects of this event in the long term, the immediate impact of this environmental disaster should warrant a mandatory evacuation and corporate accountability.
Not rare in Ohio, anymore.
So immediately following the crash the area was dangerous, but it is already mostly safe again by now.
That amount of vinyl chloride can cause a lot of problems to the surrounding populace in several days.
Also, it doesn't break down just into HCl. It also breaks down into formaldehyde. Which is both acutely toxic and also a carcinogen, and is quite a bit more stable in the environment.
The amount that came from ten cars, spread into the atmosphere, is virtually nothing.
Erm, on what basis do you make that claim?
Ten train cars of dioxin spread over a square mile is a lot. Spread over 100 square miles? Probably still a lot, like the place in missouri that dumped it on all their roads to keep the dust down. That's probably that same order of "10 cars over 10x10 square miles", of a sufficiently nasty thing.
10 cars = safe is a number that needs context and validation and it will depend on the particular chemical.
Maybe 10 train cars of formaldehyde is fine, maybe not, but, this is something that should be assessed and not dismissed out of hand, even during discourse. Random internet commentators probably don't really know if it's fine. And despite the people on-site saying measurements are fine... animals are getting sick, which is the classic warning sign with chemical spills that things are not fine.
Although there is indeed dioxin formed during the combustion apparently. Bear in mind too that this isn't a controlled incinerator, there could be various things produced at different temps etc.
When left to break down in the environment, after several days vinyl chloride will break down into a combination of formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. The latter of which won't be harmful, but the former will be.
It will also be destroyed in the soil by any number of mechanisms, with a half-life of about 14 days. [2]
[1] https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts111.pdf
[2] https://webwiser.nlm.nih.gov/substance?substanceId=1&identif...
Let's say that two train cars worth sank into the ground before breaking down. Now there's two train cars worth of formaldehyde in the groundwater in a localized area.
It's not obvious to me that this is a safe situation. There are plenty of plausible scenarios that could be reality, that would be a very unsafe situation for local residents.
Thus is should be treated as though it is that worst-case bad scenario unless shown otherwise, rather than wand-waving "oh it's probably fine". These are people's lives that are at stake.