The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that it will fund longer-term health studies of the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a 2023 train derailment that sent more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the soil, water and air.
The community has long asked the government to do more to help answer questions about the mental and physical effects of the disaster, which some people say they continue to struggle with more than two years later.
The funding will be available through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
In 2024, under the Biden administration, the institute funded six two-year rapid-response projects to study different aspects of exposures and health problems after the disaster. Those projects were worth more than $1 million in total.
The new grants will award up to $10 million for one to three projects over the next five years.
Vice President JD Vance, who was a senator from Ohio when the derailment occurred, pushed for the funding, the NIH said.
“NIH is working to ensure that the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are listened to, cared for, and get the answers they deserve,” NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a news release. “This multi-disciplinary research program will focus on public health tracking and surveillance of the community’s health conditions to support health care decisions and preventive measures.”
East Palestine resident Misti Allison, who ran for mayor after the disaster and campaigned for long-term health studies in the area, said she was pleasantly surprised by the announcement. She sits on the board of one of the current community health studies.
“This next level of funding will enable us to conduct comprehensive and high-impact studies that can truly make a difference in the area,” Allison said.
She notes that the funding announcement mentions that the research will be co-developed with input from the community. “This will really ensure that our concerns and needs are at the forefront,” she said. “So that is really great.”
More than two years after the disaster, there’s been a surge in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, respiratory complaints and even some cancers, Allison said. Because cancers have many causes, however, it’s difficult to tie those directly to chemical exposures from the derailment, she noted.
Jessica Conard, whose son developed asthma a few months after breathing toxic fumes from the derailment, said the announcement brought “a complicated mix of emotions.”
“We have had real symptoms now for 2½ years, and all we’ve received is gaslighting and dismissals from state, local and federal agencies,” Conard said.
“We still need an organized medical response, and this should have happened immediately after the disaster,” she said. “This feels like a political afterthought.
“My hope is that this $10 million doesn’t just fund another academic report that sits on the shelf without any actionable takeaways,” she said, “We desperately need real medical support.”
Allison said the community has advocated for an emergency declaration to activate special provisions for victims of environmental exposures that would enable residents to receive Medicare benefits to help pay for their ongoing health needs.
“These funds would be a lifeline for many families who are still grappling with health concerns and some economic hardship,” she said.
Dr. Andrew Whelton, a civil and environmental engineer at Purdue University who helps communities assess the impacts of disasters, said the need for the funding is unfortunate. The government and community would have been better served if they’d made more money available up-front to prevent exposures to residents in the first place, he said, and inadequate indoor air testing allowed residents to be exposed to chemicals in their homes for months after the disaster.
“It’s positive that there is funding to potentially help people investigate long-term health impact questions, but none of it would have been necessary if the right decisions were made and people in agencies didn’t fail the public” in the first place, Whelton said.
The NIH said it will accept applications for the East Palestine study grants until July 21.
