{"id":233655,"date":"2023-04-17T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=233655"},"modified":"2023-04-17T03:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T02:56:49","slug":"the-cobalt-gold-rush-and-the-east-palestine-train-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/04\/the-cobalt-gold-rush-and-the-east-palestine-train-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cobalt Gold Rush and the East Palestine Train Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

13 Apr 2023 – <\/em>Holidays in my childhood were spent at my grandparents\u2019 farm in Plain Grove, Pennsylvania, 35 miles from East Palestine, Ohio. My grandfather\u2019s grandfather fought at Gettysburg and homesteaded the 160-acre farm after the Civil War. My grandmother sold it in the 1960s for $13,000, lacking a male heir to do the work; but my relatives still live in the area.<\/p>\n

I have therefore taken a keen interest in the toxic chemical disaster that resulted when a Norfolk Southern\u00a0freight train\u00a0derailed \u00a0in\u00a0East Palestine on Feb. 3, although it is not my usual line of research. The official narrative doesn\u2019t seem to add up. Something else must have been going on, but what?<\/p>\n

A Litany of Anomalies<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 150-car train was 1.76\u00a0miles long, and\u00a010 of the 38 derailed cars<\/a>\u00a0contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride.\u00a0The decision was made<\/a>\u00a0to create a hole in each of the suspect cars and allow the contents to flow into a pit, which was then lit on fire. As\u00a0reported in Newsweek<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The toxic mixture of chemicals and carcinogens released \u2026 could spread many miles out from the crash site, experts say.<\/p>\n

The chemicals\u2014including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\u2014 were being carried aboard the train when it derailed. \u2026<\/p>\n

The fire sent up a\u00a0large plume of black smoke.<\/a>\u00a0 When burned, vinyl chloride reacts to form phosgene gas, which was used as\u00a0a chemical weapon in World War I.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How far could the phosgene cloud spread? According to a researcher cited in the Newsweek article, \u201cIt depends very much on the weather conditions \u2026 but potentially well over 100 miles radius.\u201d Vinyl chloride becomes phosgene gas, a chemical weapon, only when burned. Why was the decision made to dump and burn the chemicals? Independent journalist\u00a0Eric Coppolino writes<\/a>\u00a0that the \u201cdecision to breach, dump and burn was totally irrational and nobody understands it. The more experience people have, the less they understand it. EPA was involved; it cannot merely be a bystander.\u201d Observing that there are gaping holes in the official narrative, he writes [brackets mine]:<\/p>\n

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