International Environmental activist Erin Brockovich “has urged East Palestine locals to leave town after animals began dying following a toxic train crash.” That includes locals in neighboring Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The train derailed in Ohio but the chemicals don’t understand political boundaries. She’s famous for her fight to save chemically sensitive “canaries,” who have their lives ruined by exposure to exactly the sorts of substances released explosively over a huge part of the American northeast. This author is one of those canaries.
Brockovich fights for TILT causes
People recognize the name Erin Brockovich from the film named after her, starring Julia Roberts. That one portrays her battle against Pacific Gas and Electric when they “dumped about 370 million gallons of chromium-tainted wastewater into unlined wastewater spreading ponds around the town of Hinkley, California.”
When it was over, the settlement came in at $333 million, the largest ever, at the time. She went up against Alcoa in Australia, too.
Brockovich advised East Palestine and Beaver County residents to “document fish and livestock deaths in the area. She also reiterated the importance “to get out if they didn’t feel it was safe.” She has good reasons for saying that, ones which go far beyond the hazards of cancer.
🤬🤯 #EastPalestine https://t.co/hWzq2GUKiH
— Erin Brockovich (@ErinBrockovich) February 17, 2023
On February 3, a Norfolk Southern Railway train derailed. Around 50 of the tank cars were filled with vinyl chloride. To avoid explosion, officials ordered the venting of the contents, which immediately burst into flames. As various outlets report, this “resulted in a huge plume of smoke which billowed into the air.”
That plume of smoke was full of “hydrogen chloride and phosgene, the latter of which was used as a chemical weapon in World War One.” They called it “mustard gas.” It broke down into all sorts of poisonous “dioxins” as well. Vinyl chloride is toxic all by itself.
As Erin Brockovich is well aware, the danger goes a whole lot further than most people are aware. TILT, or toxicant-induced loss of tolerance is responsible for a wide variety of often debilitating ailments. “Gulf War syndrome” was often caused by those toxic “burn pits” Joe Biden gets all upset about.
Exposure now, symptoms forever
As Erin Brockovich and chemically sensitive “canaries” afflicted with TILT can tell you, being exposed to toxic chemicals can be a whole lot worse than the experts acknowledge. As laid out in the same detailed study which suddenly brought burn pits into the news, to those susceptible, the toxic exposure is only the beginning.
The name of the condition indicates that “toxicants” like released in this disaster are what “induce” a subsequent life long “loss of tolerance.” Stephen Paddock was afflicted. The FBI won’t admit that as the “reason” he shot up Las Vegas but they sent his brain for a special autopsy which proved he had it.
Tilt affected individuals get progressively sicker and sicker from exposure to everyday chemicals from shampoo and deodorant, to cleaners, to perfumes to you name it. The list keeps getting longer without extremely strict avoidance.
If so it’s criminal https://t.co/g64VUTd7YD
— Erin Brockovich (@ErinBrockovich) February 16, 2023
Erin Brockovich is one of my heroes. To this author, a sufferer since exposed to organophosphates around 1967, who wasn’t diagnosed until 2009, it means wearing a gas mask to the grocery store. Other than that, yours truly lives in virtual isolation. When the COVID quarantines came, this author never noticed the difference.
Ms. Brockovich put her legal expertise out in front of the television cameras at the disaster site. They asked her if she “trusted” the EPA assessment. “After 30 years of what I’ve been through, and what this community is going through, come on. It’s vinyl chloride. It’s in the air. The fish are dying. Does that give you comfort that maybe I should be in this area? Probably not.” This author firmly agrees, you’re on your own.
“I need the community to act for themselves. If you feel unsafe, then please get out of harm’s way. If you feel unsafe, stay sheltered in place. If you’re questioning if it’s all clear, and you think it isn’t, listen to that voice.” She offered more great advice as well. “Document what’s happening to your own health. Document or videotape the fish that are dying as you move about your community. I think it will be critical.” This story will be making headlines for years.
