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ButtBlock t1_j9t3g0z wrote

My dude if you think this is from the East Palestine environmental disaster you are being paranoid. There’s pollution everywhere. I’m not saying that it’s not harmful, on the contrary. But this screams chemophobia because it was “vinyl chloride” and the mechanism of release (derailment) was unusual. What happened there is an absolute tragedy, but every since it happened I keep seeing posts from PA to the tippy top of New England, saying stuff like help I smell chemicals I’m being poisoned. I mean, I’m glad you’re thinking about it now but did you somehow no smell the “chemical” odors everywhere before? Have you never smelled New York Harbor. For example, I live somewhat near a coal fired power plant. There are higher levels of mercury in the top soil where I live. You can’t even smell that stuff, but there it is. If you put top soil in a mass spec, there it is.

If you want something to worry about. Every time you pump your gas, that sweet smell is literally benzene which is a confirmed potent carcinogen. Gas is usually 1% benzene. If you can smell it it means that it’s getting into your lungs and therefore into your blood. Or the smell of diesel soot or woodsmoke. Those are polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Also confirmed carcinogenic. Or that smell of incompletely combusted gas exhaust. Benzene PAH and nitrogen oxides. You guessed it, all very carcinogenic!

The East Palestine stuff derailment is a tragedy but it really looks like this is a local environmental disaster. Like love canal. We should all be aware and outraged, but that’s different than being worried about being poisoned from hundreds of Km away, when there are literally hundreds of sources or types of pollution that you should be more worried about cars most of all.

Just my opinion bro take it or leave it.

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Eisernes t1_j9ui0jo wrote

He's not saying that at all. He asked about NEPA with the assumption this is from NY, possibly Orange County.

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Ashamed-Reflection-9 OP t1_j9uypwg wrote

Not that it matters but I'm not a dude. More importantly, I am in no way implying that this came from Ohio. I didn't even mention Ohio in my post. I realize that the article I linked caused an image to display with my post that is related to the Ohio disaster but that is just a coincidence. That being said, until someone determines the cause of the odor, I'm not ruling anything out. That's why I'm collecting data to map out a timeline.

The reason I personally am so alarmed is that that odor cloud sat on top of my house for well over 17 hours in a literal fog. The smell was very strong, it was chemically, and it burned my throat. My daughter's eyes were burning and my other daughter got an instant headache from it. The day that it rolled in, I had an unusually terrible migraine that kept me in bed for most of the day.

When I heard that other people were posting about it, on Thursday night, I found that it wasn't just my neighborhood, people from across my entire county were reporting the smell and complaining of headaches, burning sensations, dizziness, and nausea. I also saw that phenomenon extended into neighboring counties, as well as PA and NJ. I saw that many people called in the odor and police were already investigating but were unable to locate the source so I contacted the DEC, around 9pm and reported it through the oil spill hotline. I also contacted the NY Department of Health that night as well as my county's department of health. I was hoping to mobilize someone with the ability to determine the health risk that night because it was very intense, it was being reported in such a wide area, and people were feeling sick.

While I was able to speak with actual people that night, it wasn't until late Friday morning that the DEC deployed employees to come out and test the air but by then, it had mostly moved on. There were trace amounts of the odor but at that point, it wouldn't have concerned anyone. Unsurprisingly, the DEC air testing did not result in anything of concern.

Meanwhile, it was moving farther east and north. People were now reporting the smell and the residue.

I also learned that my friend was in their car near my house when the odor rolled in. Their car was covered in residue and it reeked like someone bombed their car with axe body spray. Three carwashes later, the odor was just as powerful. I reported that to the DEC this Monday. I asked if there was a way to test the residue and the DEC employee was like "Huh, I guess I can check the office for testing dishes."

I watched this cloud move across the Northeast with no answers. I also noticed that there is very little news coverage. So, yeah, I'm concerned about it. Lastly, I am not looking for something to worry about; I'm looking for answers so I can stop worrying.

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ButtBlock t1_j9uzpad wrote

I’m sorry to assume otherwise. Looking back on my previous comment I kind of sound like an asshole. I’m sorry. I’ve just seen sooo many posts talking about the “fallout” from East Palestine. All I was concerned about is that you, like many others, were worried about the disaster in Ohio. But it sounds like that’s not your concern so I was making the wrong assumptions.

Like I said there are lots of pollution sources and the health risks are real. I’ve seen New York Harbor foam, and smelled sulfides in the air in New Jersey. It’s bad, but fortunately more rare these days. Can always use more accountability with industry. Hope you’re able to figure something out about the source. Again my apologizes!

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Ashamed-Reflection-9 OP t1_j9v5vv0 wrote

I appreciate that. I can get worked up sometimes. I'm trying very hard to stay in my lane with this especially because my posts keep getting deleted and I really want to sort this out.

I know that there are many things that could be the cause but this is out of the norm. I'm 44 years old and I've lived in Orange County my entire life. I have a pretty good idea of what is normal and what is not.

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Ashamed-Reflection-9 OP t1_j9v6u63 wrote

So, check this out. This is a map that I'm working on whenever I can grab a minute. This isn't my main goal but it does track dates and locations without exposing any personal information that I may have. It may have duplicates because it combines survey results with info that I scraped from comments across social media platforms. It also only contains observations that have enough location data and an accurate date.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1EAtpU7eacd8TZbvjH59ccMsQjcEInWQ&usp=sharing

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