CNN town hall on toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio

Courtney Newman, a mother and teacher in East Palestine, Ohio, said she has been having some health issues after returning to her home after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed her house.

She said she lives a street away from the crash site. Her family was evacuated, but once that order was lifted and she came back to her house, she noticed that her son had been getting bloody noses every day. Newman said she was also seeing rashes on herself.

Newman said doctors told her they were "in the dark as much as you are."

Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff acknowledged that dealing with potential toxic exposures “may not be in the wheelhouse” of many physicians.

He said if anyone feels like they are not able to get the evaluation they feel they need, the state is making additional resources available. Patients can ask their doctor to call the county Health Department to get connected to toxicologists who can provide expert advice, according to Vanderhoff.

The Health Department also set up a clinic to help residents who may not have a doctor or just need additional support, he said.

FOR CONTEXT: CNN is sharing the stories of Ohio residents who tell us their health has been impacted by the Norfolk Southern train derailment. From a medical perspective, definitively linking chemicals to health effects – such as a rash, headache or nausea – is challenging. In some cases, it could take years to establish a definitive connection, or it turn out that one does not exist.

Nene Stewart, an East Palestine resident, is relying on water bottles because she still is unsure about the safety of her home's water.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, municipal water sample results in the city have shown "no water quality concerns."

DeWine told Stewart that "we've been very careful not to tell anybody it's OK until we have evidence that it is okay."

He said officials advised residents not to use village water or water from an individually-owned well.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine assured residents of East Palestine, Ohio, that state officials and other experts intend to stay in the town until the toxic chemicals from a train derailment earlier this month are cleaned up.

The governor said he is making a commitment to those who live there and that officials are going to do "everything we can so that you have a great future and your children have a great future."

A fiery train wreck that released toxic materials in an Ohio town is raising new questions in the halls of the nation’s capital over the regulation of the rail industry and if stricter measures could have prevented the disaster.

News of the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio – and its potentially harmful effects on the environment and health of local residents – has propelled both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to press the Biden administration on whether there’s enough oversight to keep rail workers and communities near railroads safe. And the supervising agency broadly responsible for regulating rail safety, the Department of Transportation, is calling on Congress to make it easier to institute safety reforms.

This rare, general bipartisan agreement about taking action in the wake of the derailment follows years of Republicans generally supporting deregulation of the rail industry, including with the broad rollback of transportation rules during the Trump administration.

Experts point out several areas of opportunity to enhance rail safety and hold rail companies further accountable: updating trains’ braking systems, shortening the lengths of freight trains, further separating cars with hazardous material, requiring more crew members to be on board and increasing penalties.

Many of these proposals, experts say, have been around for decades, and have oftentimes been diminished or entirely eliminated after rail lobbying efforts. Data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets show that Norfolk Southern, the company involved in the Ohio derailment, spent $1.8 million on federal lobbying last year.

Bipartisan efforts in Congress: Congressional committees are set to review the environmental and safety impacts of the East Palestine derailment. Although efforts to enhance regulatory oversight of the rail industry have generally broken along party lines, some Republicans and Democrats appear to be moving in the same direction.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, scheduled a bipartisan briefing for members of the committee last week.

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The CEO of Norfolk Southern, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine are participating in tonight's CNN town hall.

For weeks, residents have reported a variety of health problems since the Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in early February, spewing black clouds of smoke over the community of about 5,000 people in eastern Ohio.

To help prevent a deadly explosion of vinyl chloride, crews released the toxic chemical into a trench and burned it off.

Earlier on Wednesday, EPA Administrator Michael Regan threatened expensive consequences if Norfolk Southern fails to fully clean up its toxic train wreck and pay for the fallout in East Palestine.

While the EPA says testing shows the air and municipal water are safe, Regan said those with symptoms they believe might be linked to the wreck should “seek medical attention.”

Those residents should “ensure that the state and local health agencies understand those experiences because as we force Norfolk Southern to take full accountability for what they’ve done, Norfolk Southern will pay for everything,” Regan said.

CNN's Nouran Salahieh, Holly Yan and Claire Colbert contributed reporting to this post.

A Senate hearing on the toxic train derailment and cleanup in East Palestine, Ohio, is expected to be held in early March, two Senate sources familiar with the plan told CNN. 

In addition to health and safety concerns, the hearing is expected to focus on the timeline of state and federal Environmental Protection Agency response to the incident, one source told CNN.

Last week, Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia announced they would hold a hearing on the derailment without setting a date. Carper, a Democrat, is chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and Capito, a Republican, is a ranking member of the committee.

Carper and Capito said in a statement the hearing would “examine the local, state and federal response in the immediate aftermath of the train derailment and the ongoing efforts to clean up toxic chemicals in the surrounding environment.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro alleged Tuesday that Norfolk Southern gave inaccurate information and conflicting data to government officials in regard to the Ohio train derailment that occurred earlier this month.

He said he has “serious concerns” with Norfolk Southern’s “failed management of this crisis" at a Tuesday afternoon news conference in East Palestine, Ohio.

He said he will hold the company accountable for its actions. 

When asked what non-financial actions are being taken against the company for the incident, Shapiro said his state’s department of environmental protection has made a “criminal referral” to the attorney general’s office.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said his attorney general is reviewing the possible legal action against Norfolk Southern as well on Tuesday.

“The Ohio attorney general will take whatever action that Ohio law allows him to take,” DeWine said after Shapiro spoke. “And I know he’s reviewing this right now.”

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, who is scheduled to take part in Wednesday's CNN town hall, defended his company’s actions since the disaster caused by the derailment of one of its trains in East Palestine, Ohio, and promised the railroad will pay for the cleanup.

Shaw said the company has already paid out $6.5 million to citizens living near the site of the derailment that took place February 3. Shaw said the railroad has been in agreement with the actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local efforts on the ground in East Palestine since the train derailment.

Shaw said Norfolk Southern has been coordinating with the Ohio EPA and local officials and, so far, has been very present in the community since the February 3 accident. He said he first came to East Palestine in the immediate aftermath of the accident and visited a family assistance center that the company put in place, where he checked in on residents, making sure they had everything that they needed.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit the site of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday.

The secretary has come under intense pressure from East Palestine residents and other critics to visit the town in the wake of the February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train that released toxic chemicals.

He told reporters earlier this week that he would visit “when the time is right” but was deferring to the National Transportation Safety Board and its investigation first. An administration official told CNN that the time is now appropriate for Buttigieg to go to East Palestine.

In response to criticism, Buttigieg said in an interview on CBS News’ “Red and Blue" that he “could have spoken out sooner” about the incident, and that it was a “lesson learned.”

He said he has been “respecting the role that the independent NTSB plays and staying out of their way” but does plan to visit East Palestine where he will be “focused on action, not on politics, not on show.”