Five days after a train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and exploded near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, crews initiated a controlled burn of toxic chemicals to prevent a much more dangerous explosion. Thousands of residents of East Palestine, Ohio, a town of about 5,000 people, were evacuated, and officials warned the controlled burn would create a phosgene and hydrogen chloride plume across the region.
The explosion serves as a wake-up call to the potential for more deadly freight rail derailments, according to public health advocates. They believe that ineffective oversight and a largely self-monitoring industry are responsible for the wreck.
American Buddhist Net 