April 2023 Newsletter
Fact Ohio Faith communities together for a sustainable future
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Earth Day Weekend in Ohio: Focus on East Palestine Led by FaCT & Ohio Council of Churches page 2
Erin in East Palestine Randy Cunningham page 3
Hellbent: A Rights of Nature Story April 23 3pm-4pm Screening & Conversation with filmmaker Annie Roth and community organizer Bill Lyons Register for this online event here. page 6
Dioxin Contamination: East Palestine The deadly legacy of a toxic compound Dr. Randi Pokladnik page 4-5
Distinguished Speaker Series May 6 ~ 3pm Michelle Nijhuis Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction page 7
FactOhio Co-sponsors Earthfest in Rocky River page 7
Note from FactOhio Treasurer ~ page 8
Earth Day Weekend in Ohio: Focus on East Palestine Led by FaCT & Ohio Council of Churches Ron Prosek, FaCT EP Crisis Team “This is much, much bigger than I realized. This is massive!” Those were the words of Judy Comeau-Hart, FaCT’s Development Consultant, on her return from her visit to East Palestine on April 13. It’s very clear that our neighbors in East Palestine still need our help, and they will need help for a long time to come. Let us do our part, beginning with our participation in the Earth Day Weekend of Prayer, Reflection, and Call to Action. On Earth Day Weekend, April 21-23, let us reflect, and commit to action - each congregation in its place of worship - mosque, synagogue, temple, or church. FaCT, together with the Ohio Council of Churches (OCC), is calling for an Ohio and beyond effort among all faith communities. We must reflect. What can we do to help? What can we do to prevent disasters like this from happening again? We must act by extending real material help to East Palestinians and undertake real, concrete action to get our local, state, and federal governments to do their jobs by holding railroads, petroleum, plastics and other industries accountable for their actions. We must act to help safeguard EVERY small and large community in Ohio and throughout the nation. Clergy & Lay Congregation Leaders click here for your Congregation to participate in the Weekend of Prayer, Reflection, & Call to Action April 21-23: JOIN (or visit factohio.org) East Palestine can never be what it was. Toxic exposure symptoms persist, especially among children—vomiting, rashes, trouble breathing. Even those who do not report symptoms still smell unusual odors in the air that EPA claims is safe to breathe. Safe? Scientists tell us that if you can smell a substance, it is already in your body. And what is really a safe level in the air of the chemicals involved? Many of the chemicals were combined, especially from the detonation on February 6, creating additional toxins such as phosgene gas and dioxin. We invite all to participate in our webinar on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, 3 PM to get the latest information on the situation in East Palestine and to discuss actions we can take going forward to aid East Palestinians and to bring about the reforms needed to keep our communities safe. Our Saturday, April 22 webinar and discussion begins at 3pm and will include: Dr. Randi Pokladnik Environmental Scientist Dr. Ted Auch FracTracker, FaCT Board VicePresident Rebekkah Creshkoff Beyond Plastics Rev. Dr. Bob Miller, pastor of Emmanuel United Methodist Church Our panel will include East Palestine residents who will share their stories. Register for the East Palestine webinar here
Apublic meeting in Eaton Township, Ohio, about zoning ordinances for waste facilities was at full capacity in March 2023. Photo by Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance, 2023.
"Removal" of contaiminated soil in East Palestine, April 2023
Erin in East Palestine Randy Cunningham Recently it was revealed that an Ohio police “fusion center” working with the US Department of Homeland Security, had identified famed environmental warrior Erin Brockovich as a “special interest terrorist” in reaction to her visit to East Palestine, Ohio to help advise citizens on what to do about the recent Norfolk and Southern train derailment and chemical spill. She is someone you might want to listen to about the criminal behavior of our most powerful corporations, since she successfully held Pacific Gas and Electric culpable for turning a California community into a chemical disaster zone. To my knowledge she has been scrupulously legal in all her activities, which is why she drives big corporations and polluters nuts. So unable to come up with a better way to deal with her ― like not polluting, and not treating people and their communities as disposable — they labelled her a terrorist. Which does not pass the laugh test. What they are not doing is investigating the politicians, power brokers, and regulators who made the derailment of the Norfolk and Southern train not only possible, but inevitable. What they are not investigating is how the industrial complex of chemical companies, oil and gas corporations, pipeline companies and railroads run the Ohio State House as if it was their private property. They all had a hand in laying the groundwork for the East Palestine disaster. If you want to see real terrorism, just look at the innumerable pipeline spills, fires and explosions at fracking wells, railroad accidents and spills and the latent disaster awaiting future generations as Ohio becomes the dumping ground for liquid fracking waste from neighboring states. Fracking waste is a time bomb waiting to travel through the strata it is injected into, into the aquifers and waterways of Ohio. Then we should consider the accumulating mountain of epidemiological evidence about the health harms anyone unfortunate enough to live next to fracking operations is at risk of. Carry on our assessment of the terrorism that is never called terrorism, to the plans to build up the infrastructure of the plastics industry in the upper Ohio valley where the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky merge. The upper Ohio valley is already one of the “cancer alleys” of our nation. It is now targeted for expansion because the “cancer alleys” of Louisiana and Texas are being inundated with rising oceans from global warming, and ever more powerful and destructive hurricanes coming off the warming waters of the Gulf of Mexico. If a terrorist wanted to do harm to Ohio and other disposable regions, they would invest in the chemical, oil, and gas industries of Ohio. They would deposit their money in the financial institutions that bankroll these industries. Leave Erin alone. She is doing what our elected leaders are not doing. Protecting us from harm from interests and industries who do not give a damn about the welfare of the communities they operate in. Those who labelled Erin a terrorist have provided us with a needed lesson about the realities of just how tenuous our civil and democratic rights are. Americans love to bloviate about how free and how democratic we are as we lecture the rest of the world about our glories. Unfortunately, the people who see the true limitations of our freedoms and democracy are those who try to use it for the redress of grievances, to use the words of the Constitution. Try to amend the constitution, or to demonstrate and protest a wrong, or even have a public meeting at a public building, and you will be faced with a blizzard of rules and regulations that are designed to harass those who take our much praised values seriously. Protest the actions of the powerful and the well connected and some police or private security agency will open a file on you. Step where you are not supposed to step, say what you are not supposed to say, or show anything but the most self-effacing and obsequious behavior toward the authorities, and you may end up being arrested. And if you start to make some progress in your cause, then a banquet from hell will be dumped on your head. But it has never stopped Erin, and it should not stop the rest of us either. Democracy is a muscle that grows stronger with use. It is a never ending battle against those in power who want to shut us up and shut us down. Be of good cheer. You have brothers and sisters around the world doing what you are doing, and we are the hope of the world. Randy Cunningham is an activist and writer in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author of Democratizing Cleveland: The rise and fall of community organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985. (Belt Books) and is in the publication process of a forthcoming book on grass roots environmental organizing in our region.
Dioxin Contamination: East Palestine The deadly legacy of a toxic compound Dr. Randi Pokladnik On February 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying 51 cars had an accident where 38 cars derailed. Eleven of those that derailed were tanker cars carrying hazardous materials such as benzene residue, butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride. Five of the eleven cars carried vinyl chloride which is used to make PVC. Some estimates say 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride were in those five rail cars. The accident happened in the small community of East Palestine, Ohio, population around 4,000. Vinyl Chloride is well-established as an animal and human carcinogen and is associated with liver cancer as well as brain and lung malignancies. It is polymerized into polyvinyl chloride, a plastic that is used to make pipes and packaging. Globally, 16 billion pounds of vinyl chloride are produced annually. Since the derailment, the citizens of East Palestine and the rest of the world have been getting an education on how easily one industrial accident can change your life forever. One fact is obvious. No one, including local, state and federal officials and agencies, or the employees of Norfolk Southern, was really aware or prepared for the long-term consequences of accidents involving hazardous materials. “The National Transportation Safety Board issued its preliminary report on the derailment which, even in its abbreviated form, made clear that the “accident” which has devastated the town was completely preventable and that through its actions Norfolk Southern ignored warnings for nearly an hour that one of the axles was overheating and would fail.” Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern said, “the ‘vent and burn’ decision emerged from a unified command group led by a local fire chief.” He added that local, state and federal officials including both Ohio and Pennsylvania Governors agreed on the decision that it was better to burn the vinyl chloride than risk an explosion. On Feb. 6, vinyl chloride was intentionally released and burned. This resulted in a massive cloud of black smoke, resembling a mushroom cloud from a nuclear detonation, rising above the surrounding area. It could be seen for miles as it spread through the Ohio River valley. The decision to burn these chemicals left the residents of the area with a much larger toxic mess because the combustion of this chlorinated organic compound (PVC) creates a group of some 400 compounds called “dioxins.” The first time I heard the term “dioxin” was in college during an environmental engineering class. Our instructor explained that no one intentionally makes dioxin, it is an unintended by-product of incomplete combustion. It also has the reputation of being one of the most toxic compounds known. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies dioxin as a human carcinogen. Dioxin was a contaminant in Agent Orange, the herbicide used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War. It was also found in contaminated oil that was sprayed over the roads to suppress dust in the now uninhabited town of Times Beach, Missouri. In 1976, an explosion at a chemical facility in Seveso, Italy resulted in the release of a cloud of dioxin. At the time, humans had never been exposed to this high a concentration of dioxin. Most of human exposure to the compound is through foods, mainly meat and dairy products, as dioxins are very fat soluble. The half-life of dioxins once they enter the body is 7 to 10 years. Because they are present throughout the environment in small quantities, they accumulate in the food chain like DDT. Dioxins are classified as persistent organic pollutants or POPs because they persist in the environment, resisting breakdown. “Dioxin buried or leached under the surface or deep in the sediment of rivers and other bodies of water can have a half-life of more than 100 years.” In 2001, The International Forum on Chemical Safety along with the United Nations Environmental Program developed a treaty, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). This treaty is aimed at reducing POPs. Dioxins were in the first 12 listed POPs addressed by the Stockholm Convention in the category of “by-products” from incomplete combustion, especially the combustion of chlorine-containing carbon compounds. This type of combustion happens when hospitals burn wastes, when municipalities incinerate their wastes and when hazardous wastes are burned in kilns like those at the Thermal Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool. When I first learned about the Thermal Heritage Incinerator in 1993 (it was then the WTI Incinerator), I was shocked to read the amount and types of toxic compounds it was being allowed to accept. The facility’s permit allowed it to emit over four tons of lead a year. At the time the facility was being permitted, citizens' exposures to dioxin via the food chain were ignored. The incinerator would produce the deadliest form of dioxin, 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8 TCDD). The Ohio River Sanitary Commission or ORSANCO, monitors dioxin levels in the Ohio River. Their data shows that incinerators, especially WTI, are a significant source of dioxin. In 2010, the Ohio Department of Health said that East Liverpool has a “strikingly high incidence rate of cancers (especially bladder, colon and rectum, esophagus, lung and bronchus, multiple myeloma, and prostate cancer) when compared to Ohio and the U.S.” Sadly, the facility was allowed to go online even though it failed to pass its test burn. “Its efficiency rating for removing mercury from emissions was only 7 percent, as opposed to the required 99.99 percent.” The United States lawmakers and agencies continue to cater to the petrochemical industry. Although the USA has signed the Stockholm Treaty, it has never officially ratified it or placed appropriate regulations in place that would require industries in the USA to adhere to it. So, companies in this country still produce POPs. PVC has a significant impact on human health and the environment from cradle to grave. Dioxin is not only released when PVC is burned but also when it is produced. PVC is 60 percent chlorine by weight. In years past, chlorine, a very toxic gas, was made via a process that used mercury to split salt into sodium and chlorine. Newer processes used today are just as dangerous and require membranes coated with the forever PFAS compounds. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, a jury found one of the United States’ leading PVC manufacturers liable for “wanton and reckless disregard of public safety”, as it was responsible for one of the largest chemical spills in the nation’s history. The spill contaminated the groundwater underneath the surrounding community. Consumers are exposed to PVC via food contact containers and water pipes in their homes. Leaching of organic toxic compounds (carbon tetrachloride, toluene, chloroform, styrene, o-xylene, bromoform, dibromomethane, cis-1,3-dichloropropane, and trans-1,3-dichloropropane) from PVC water pipes has been reported. Sadly, some can coatings have replaced the bisphenol-A (BPA) with another toxic coating: PVC. Even at the end of its life, PVC continues to pollute because it releases vapors like dioxin when in landfills. If PVC is incinerated, dioxin is produced. Because PVC often has additives like the heavy metal cadmium, the waste ash from incineration is also toxic. Using plastics like PVC for a fuel source in cement kilns and incinerators is never a good way to dispose of the substance because of the emissions released. The recent fire at a recycling facility near the Indiana-Ohio border is an example of what happens when plastics are burned. The emissions are causing concerns for the residents and experts and recent tests show they contain benzene, chlorine, hydrogen cyanide, volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide. Our dependence on so many petrochemicals places us in a precarious position. We need to embrace safer alternatives. This is especially true in health applications where patients can be exposed to high levels of toxins from plastics items like IV tubing and IV bags. Safer alternatives include ethylene vinyl acetate for IV bags, silicone or polyurethane for tubing, and PVC free nitrile gloves, which are stronger than PVC gloves. In construction, PEX or cross-linked polyethylene pipes are comparable to copper but cheaper. They can bend a bit more than PVC and will last up to 50 years. PVC coated fabric which is used for tents, tarps and protective clothing for fire-fighters can be replaced with Rivercyclon’s fabric called Rivertex which is UV resistant as well as waterproof and PVC free. The bottom line is we, as consumers, need to demand safer products and alternatives to toxic materials. Every day we are being exposed to toxins from petrochemicals in our lives. The communities living around the toxic facilities as well as those who work in these facilities are suffering and dying from exposures that can be eliminated. Just say no to toxic petrochemicals and products made from them.
MAKE A PHONE CALL TODAY: Contact US EPA Administrator Debra Shore’s office, 1-888-445-5134 Phone Script: i, this is (insert name), I live in (insert city in Ohio), and I’m calling today to ask Administrator Shore to begin actions to remove Ohio’s authority to manage the class II oil and gas waste Injection well program. The program managed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), continues to endanger underground drinking water sources and public health.
Hellbent: A Rights of Nature Story April 23 3pm-4pm Screening & Conversation with filmmaker Annie Roth and community organizer Bill Lyons Register for this online event here. Hellbent tells the story of one town’s epic fight to keep injection wells out of their community. The people of Grant Township passed an ordinance prohibiting the dumping of frack waste and a Home Rule Charter granting legal rights to the Little Mahoning Watershed. Their victory is a win for the eastern hellbender salamander and for all communities fighting for a cleaner and healthier environment. Grant Township serves as proof that a small group of people can take action to protect their homes and natural areas. https://www.hellbentfilm.com/ West Shore Fact
Distinguished Speaker Series Michelle Nijhuis Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction Michelle specializes in stories about conservation and global change. Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, reveals the origins of organizations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund, explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping crane and the black rhinoceros, and confronts the darker side of conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism. Now, as the destruction of other species continues and the effects of climate change escalate, conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all species—including our own. Beloved Beasts won the Sierra Club’s 2021 Rachel Carson Award, was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s 10 Best Books of 2021, Smithsonian Magazine’s 10 Best Science Books of 2021, Booklist’s 10 Best Sci-Tech Books of 2021, and the Marginalian’s Favorite Books of 2021. As project editor at The Atlantic, Michelle edits features for the Planet section and a series called Life Up Close. Her writing has also appeared in publications including National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine, and she's proud to be a longtime contributing editor of High Country News, a scrappy institution that produces some of the finest journalism in the American West. Register for the May 6 Speaker Series event with Michelle Nijhuis here.
https://michellenijhuis.com/
CONNECT with groups and businesses with Earth Friendly practices. LEARN from community organizations and nonprofits. BE INSPIRED by others who share your environmental values. ~Enjoy Food, Children’s Activities, Raffles, Vendors, Farmers’ Market, Art Show, & Opportunities for Action! ~See the work being done locally to address environmental inequality and bring greater sustainability to our neighborhoods. ~Become informed about the issues, purchase local food and sustainably made products, connect with groups or individuals that work and care for our ecosystems, start new projects, and cultivate habits that are earth friendly. ~A portion of the proceeds from this event will support a Composting Project designed by neighborhood children at Kentucky Garden Kids’ Garden on Franklin Avenue, part of the Urban Hope outreach center. ~Free will donations in support of future EarthFest events will be gratefully accepted at the door. FactOhio is co-sponsoring EarthFest in support of Fact Anchor - West Shore Fact.
From the Treasurer Ron Prosek
Thanks to those who donated to FaCT since the last issue. We appreciate your support, which is vital for FaCT programming that includes brine spreading education, education about injection wells, our popular Distinguished Speakers Series, the development of our new program on climate change, and our new podcast, Just the FaCTS! Recently, with your support, we have been developing activities for Earth Day Weekend in support of East Palestine and for reform of freight rail operations in Ohio and the nation. It is a pleasure to announce that we just received a grant award from the Cleveland Foundation in the amount of $10,874 for board development and recruiting. Many thanks to Judy Comeau-Hart, our development consultant, for obtaining this grant for FaCT. At this point, I usually ask you to donate to FaCT. However, this month, I would like to ask you all to send a check to us for the distressed folks in East Palestine. Their worries and their challenges continue. You can use the form below. Please make your checks payable to FaCT as usual but also write “E Palestine” on the memo line of your check. Once we collect the checks, we will consolidate them into one check to send to Emmanuel United Methodist Church in East Palestine. Their pastor, the Rev. Dr. Bob Miller, will then allocate our donations to purchase items for distressed East Palestiners. THANK YOU! Do you prefer an e-version only of the FaCT Newsletter? If you are currently receiving a paper copy of the FaCT Newsletter via U.S. mail but would prefer to receive an e-version only, please let us know by emailing Ron Prosek at rprosek.factohio@gmail.com On the other hand, if you are currently getting only the e-version but would also like the paper version, which comes out every other month, please email Ron Prosek at the email address above. Please include your full mailing address.
MEMO: EAST PALESTINE AID