Vinchloride was banned from some products in 1974.

The derailed train in Ohio was carrying a chemical called vinyl chloride, which according to some reports has been banned since 1974. This is only true for some products.

Almost a dozen of the 38-car trains that derailed in eastern Palestine, Ohio in early February 2023 were carrying hazardous materials, including a toxic chemical called vinyl chloride.

The contents of vinyl chloride in five cars of the train were dumped and burned because of the risk of an explosion that could send deadly fragments up to a mile from the crash site, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office said. The burning of the chemical sent a huge plume of smoke into the air, forcing residents of eastern Palestine to evacuate due to ill health.

In the weeks after the crash, some people on the internet claimed that the vinyl chloride was forbidden From 1974.

“Tried to figure out why a train was carrying over 300,000 gallons of a banned chemical in 1974,” shared a viral meme. ON tweet law.

QUESTION

Was vinyl chloride banned in 1974?

SOURCES

ANSWER

In 1974, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of vinyl chloride in aerosols, but not other products. Today, additional federal regulations are in place to limit human exposure to vinyl chloride.

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WHAT WE FOUND

Vinyl chloride is a colorless, flammable gas that evaporates quickly. It is mainly used to make a plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Polyvinyl chloride is used in pipes, wire and cable sheathing, auto parts and upholstery, kitchen utensils and packaging materials, according to the Wisconsin and Ohio health departments.

Although vinyl chloride is allowed in some products, including PVC, the federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) banned the use of this chemical in aerosols in 1974.

At the time, the commission noted that vinyl chloride “has been linked by scientific studies and clinical reports to a rare form of liver cancer.”

“While there is no evidence directly linking cancer to the use of aerosols containing vinyl chloride, consumers are still exposed to inhaling the substance whenever they use aerosols containing it. And there is no known safe level of exposure,” the CPSC declared in 1974.

Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of liver, brain, and lung cancers, as well as lymphoma and leukemia, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.

Other federal agencies do not completely ban the use of vinyl chloride, but they have developed regulations and guidelines to protect people from the chemical’s potentially harmful effects.

For example, the US Food and Drug Administration limits the amount of PVC that can be used in food packaging. As a result of this federal regulation, “Food products do not contain significant amounts of vinyl chloride,” according to the website of the National Capital Poison Control Center.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also regulate vinyl chloride in the United States.

There were 300,000 gallons of vinyl chloride in the train cars, as the reports say?

Some social media posts claim that the derailed Norfolk Southern train in Ohio was carrying 300,000 gallons of vinyl chloride.

But federal government data does not support these claims.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a preliminary report released Feb. 23 that the five derailed vehicles carried a total of 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, not the 300,000 gallons people on social media claim.

As of Feb. 17, 247,000 gallons of liquid waste had been removed from the crash site for disposal, according to the EPA. But the agency didn’t specify if it was just vinyl chloride or if other chemicals were included.

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