On Friday, Feb. 3, in East Palestine, OH a trail derailment occurred. A train derailment is when a bad wheel slides off the track and breaks off of the train, which leads to it crashing into the other parts of the train and sometimes releasing dangerous chemicals.

When the derailment in East Palestine happened, people near the train tracks and people near Western Pennsylvania had to evacuate. You might be wondering, why did they have to evacuate? People had to evacuate due to a dangerous chemical released by the train called “vinyl chloride.” Vinyl chloride is a chemical compound and it can cause long-term liver cancer. Five train cars were carrying vinyl chloride gasses, which means so much of that gas filled the air after the derailment! 

“I feel that the environment has been affected by East Palestine because the toxic chemicals that were released into the air will affect the water, but not the international environment,” Joshua Schoedel, a seventh-grade student, explained.

On Feb. 6, officials decided to have a controlled release. A controlled release is when they release hazardous chemicals from the train, so they don’t fill up the air. The controlled release can be dangerous since they are setting the train on fire to burn out the chemicals. 

“It’s not a good thing for our environment because it exploded chemicals and the wildlife can die from it,” Olivia Camp, a sixth-grade student, said.

As of March 3, people living in East Palestine have developed headaches, coughing, and irritated skin after the derailment.