Vinyl chloride banned in aerosols in 1974, not other products

Nearly one dozen of the 38 teach automobiles that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in early February 2023 have been carrying hazardous materials, together with a poisonous chemical known as vinyl chloride. 

The vinyl chloride content material in 5 of the rail automobiles used to be launched and burned because of the danger of explosion, which may have despatched fatal shrapnel as much as one mile clear of the derailment website online, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s administrative center stated. Burning the chemical despatched an enormous plume of smoke into the air and compelled East Palestine citizens to evacuate because of well being issues.

In the weeks following the derailment, some folks on-line have claimed that vinyl chloride has been banned since 1974.

“Trying to understand why a train was carrying over 300,000 gallons of a chemical that was banned in 1974,” one viral meme shared on Twitter reads.

Was vinyl chloride banned in 1974?

In 1974, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned vinyl chloride in aerosols, however not other products. There are further federal rules in position lately to restrict folks’s publicity to vinyl chloride. 

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Vinyl chloride is a drab and flammable gasoline that evaporates briefly. It is primarily used to make one of those plastic known as polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

PVC is used in pipes, cord and cable coatings, automotive portions and fabric, kitchenware, and packaging fabrics, state well being departments in Wisconsin and Ohio say.

While vinyl chloride is permitted in some products, together with PVC, the government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a ban at the chemical in aerosols in 1974.

The fee famous on the time that vinyl chloride have been “linked by scientific studies and clinical reports to a rare form of liver cancer.”

“Although there is no evidence directly linking cancer to the use of aerosols containing vinyl chloride, consumers are always subject to inhalation of the substance whenever they use aerosols that contain it. And there is no known safe exposure level,” the CPSC stated in 1974.

According to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute, vinyl chloride publicity has been related to an larger chance of liver, mind and lung cancers, together with lymphoma and leukemia.

Other federal businesses don’t ban vinyl chloride altogether, however they have got advanced rules and proposals to give protection to folks from doubtlessly damaging results of the chemical.

For instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limits the amount of polyvinyl chloride that can be utilized in meals packaging. As a results of this federal law, “food does not contain a significant amount of vinyl chloride,” the National Capital Poison Center says on its website.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) additionally control vinyl chloride in the U.S.

Did the teach automobiles comprise 300,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, as posts declare?

Some of the social media posts declare that the Norfolk Southern teach that derailed in Ohio used to be wearing 300,000 gallons of vinyl chloride.

But federal executive information does not again up those claims. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a preliminary report issued on Feb. 23 that 5 of the derailed teach automobiles have been wearing a complete of 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride – not 300,000 gallons, as folks on social media declare.

According to the EPA, 247,000 gallons of liquid waste have been transported clear of the derailment website online for disposal as of Feb. 17. But the company didn’t specify whether or not this used to be most effective vinyl chloride or integrated other chemical compounds.