New study suggests health damage from exposure to Ohio toxic train spill

In the weeks after the East Palestine train wreck culminated in a towering fireball and chemical release in the small Ohio town, Jessica Boersma was seriously exposed to the stew of compounds emitted from the derailment site. Boersma lives less than a quarter mile away, and, as a city council member, she had to spend significant time at the site coordinating with first responders. Now the first long-term research carried out on East Palestine residents exposed to the disaster suggests how it may have affected her – blood drawn six months after the accident showed signs of chronic inflammation and altered cell counts suggesting the chemical exposure had damaged her body. More broadly, the new peer-reviewed pilot study that checked blood samples suggests that some East Palestine residents’ immune systems were still “responding to toxic chemical exposures” by fighting off an attack, or repairing their bodies. The research did not look for particular diseases. Compared with a control group, East Palestine residents showed higher numbers of red blood cells, higher hemoglobin levels, inflammation and an increase in the number of cells the body dispatches to attack and “eat” chemicals in order to remove them from the body. The East Palestine residents also showed higher levels of proteins that work to repair tissue damage, and lower numbers of cells that fight infection, which suggests a response to a chemical exposure. …