As the story of the Norfolk Southern chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio continues to unfold, we are learning how this freight train derailment polluted local waterways and released harmful pollutants into the air. . People who have returned home have spoken of health problems and dead pets, and the Environmental Protection Agency is now pressing the railroad company to pay for the cleanup. While this incident highlights the need for safer chemical transportation, we believe that what happened is also a wake-up call for us to rethink the chemicals that fuel our economy.
Cargo manifests for freight trains indicate that several cars contained flammable or combustible petroleum-based chemicals in addition to vinyl chloride. They include benzene and butyl acrylate, which are also precursors to plastics and other chemicals, and 2-butoxyethanol, a common ingredient in paint strippers and cleaning agents. These chemicals include carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive and organ toxicants, and skin and respiratory irritants. Fish deaths in affected rivers raise concerns about the long-term safety of drinking water and soil. And scientists are just beginning to look at persistent and toxic byproducts, such as dioxins, produced in homes and soil by the deliberate ignition of five tankers. It is shocking that this cargo was not officially classified as dangerous goods.
If we want to end the dangerous chemical accidents that make people and ecosystems sick, we need to address our dependence on these chemicals and the manufacturing processes required to make them. The disruption it has created has spurred chemists, the chemical industry and companies that rely on chemicals to create safer and more sustainable chemicals, processes, materials and products.
The current generation of chemicals that form the basis of our economy, such as vinyl chloride and benzene, were rapidly developed, deployed and expanded before the 1960s. Their chemicals are built on an increasingly abundant fossil fuel platform and designed for functionality and low cost. As an “industry within industry,” companies have used these chemicals to create new products and applications, especially plastics, and to advance transportation, communications, and construction technologies. The environmental and occupational health laws of the 1970s and 1980s greatly improved the safety of chemicals, but the way these chemicals were regulated, while controlling the risks, was dictated by the derailed Norfolk Southern railroad. It assumes that you can enjoy the benefits of what is transported. However, these risks cannot be completely controlled.
The Ohio derailment is just one of more than 20,000 dangerous goods transportation accidents that occur each year. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, more than 11,000 facilities across the United States manufacture, use, or store hazardous chemicals in amounts that could harm people or the environment. Manufacturing, distribution, and public works facilities also have an average of 202 spills per year. About a quarter of them affect nearby communities. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that from 2004 to 2019, chemical accidents at approximately 660 facilities caused quantified annual losses of $434 million and property value losses of $39.5 billion annually. Many of these facilities are located both in low-income communities of color and in areas with natural hazards that are likely to be exacerbated by climate change, increasing the likelihood of future toxic chemical accidents.
After several major chemical incidents, including the Union Carbide disaster that killed thousands in Bhopal, India in the 1980s, chemical management strategies shifted from emission controls, Tyvek suits, ventilators, and emergency cleanup plans. A broad consensus emerged to keep away. Pollution control at the source was made a national priority by the Pollution Control Act 1990. For many scientists and engineers, prevention at source means, for example, replacing hazardous chemicals with less hazardous chemicals in manufacturing processes, or redesigning production processes and products to avoid the use of toxic substances. It meant developing an approach that eliminated the danger by disabling or dramatically reducing the
By the mid-1990s, the concepts of inherent safety, green engineering, and green chemistry had emerged, applying anti-pollution principles to molecular and process design. Various expert groups have recently defined sustainable chemistry as “the development and application of chemicals, chemical processes, and products that benefit present and future generations without causing harmful effects on humans or ecosystems.” ” was defined. The European Union has also created standards for chemicals that are “safe by design and sustainable”.
Bringing chemists and engineers together with health scientists to better understand, evaluate, and eliminate environmental and health hazards at the design stage of chemicals and chemical processes ultimately impacts production, transportation, use, and and end-of-life risks to workers, communities and consumers. of chemicals and chemical products. However, despite the growing interest in sustainable chemistry in the research and education community, industry and government have not fully embraced it.
Moving to safer and less hazardous chemicals and products is easier said than done. The chemicals and materials we use today, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the primary use of vinyl chloride, are cost-effective, perform well, and are highly integrated into global supply chains. Integrated. There are few incentives to migrate, especially given the high cost of research and development, piloting, capitalization, and restructuring to integrate new and safer chemicals into the economy.
The problem of hazardous chemicals cannot be adequately addressed without providing cost-effective and safer solutions. Reimagining the chemistry, manufacturing processes, and materials that power our economy requires significant government coordination, investment, industry-wide collaboration, and meaningful engagement with academia and the community. This is the same concerted and sustained effort that built the current generation of chemicals. It will also require training a new generation of chemists and engineers. Innovation in chemistry and chemical processes is essential to addressing the hazards of chemicals, but also addressing the industry’s significant contributions to climate change and plastic waste, which are under increasing scrutiny by the investment community and government officials. can.
By implementing the Sustainable Chemistry Research and Development Act, the federal government has a unique opportunity to demonstrate leadership in advancing sustainable chemistry. We can also ensure that the massive investments made in manufacturing processes and materials to decarbonize the economy through inflation reduction laws also address the toxicity and hazards of current chemicals and materials. (The chemical industry accounts for his 20% of industrial CO2.2 Studies show that not only do these investments save billions of dollars we incur each year from toxic accidents, they actually benefit the economy, positioning the United States as a leader in innovation and sustainability.
Designing, applying, and scaling new chemicals and manufacturing processes takes a considerable amount of time, perhaps decades, given the research-development-manufacturing cycle. But in the meantime, to avoid another disaster in East Palestine, security controls need to be strengthened to protect communities and workers from such a toxic tragedy. These safety controls include requesting electronic braking systems, expanding the number of well-trained safety-focused workers, and risk-assessing facilities to adopt safer options when available.
Most of the hundreds of people who were obliged to evacuate are now returning to communities that are the focus of large-scale hazardous waste cleanup efforts. These people need immediate action to deal with this disaster. However, for all communities affected or potentially affected by hazardous chemical incidents, replacing hazardous chemicals with alternatives that are fundamentally safe to manufacture, transport, and use. requires long-term sustained action and investment to prevent such disasters.
This is an opinion and analysis article and views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily Scientific American.
