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CDC Officers Became Sick While Assessing Contamination in East Palestine
The reports add "confirmation that the symptoms reported by East Palestine residents are real and are associated with environmental exposures from the derailment and chemical fire," said one scientist.
Mar 31, 2023
Reports that several investigators with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention became ill earlier this month when they visited East Palestine, Ohio offered the latest evidence on Friday that the air and water in the town is less safe than state officials and rail company Norfolk Southern have claimed, following the company's train derailment in February.
As CNN reported, seven physicians and officers from the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service traveled to East Palestine in early March, a month after a train carrying toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride derailed there.
The team reported developing symptoms including headaches, sore throats, coughing, and nausea while they were conducting their door-to-door assessment of public health risks.
The symptoms were similar to those reported by many East Palestine residents since the crash, and are consistent with the physical effects of exposure to vinyl chloride when it is burned, as it was by officials who conducted a controlled release following the derailment to avoid an explosion.
Despite reports from people in the area, who were briefly evacuated and then told just days after the accident that it was safe to return to East Palestine, state officials and Norfolk Southern representatives have insisted that no dangerous levels of contamination have been detected in air or water.
"We must stop playing Russian Roulette with our health and the environment," said environmental justice advocate Erin Brockovich Friday.
\u201cIt just ain't worth it people.\nWe must stop playing Russian Roulette with our health and the environment. \nhttps://t.co/Pxx2vpnodp\u201d— Erin Brockovich (@Erin Brockovich) 1680275822
The report from CDC experts "adds confirmation that the symptoms reported by East Palestine residents are real and are associated with environmental exposures from the derailment and chemical fire," David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, told CNN.
Norfolk Southern has removed roughly nine million gallons of contaminated wastewater from the site of the derailment so far. Chemicals spilled into local creeks and rivers after the derailment and eventually flowed into the Ohio River.
Residents have expressed frustration over officials' assurances as many have reported symptoms similar to those experienced by the CDC experts.
"They're all scientists," one East Palestine woman named Jami Cozza told a panel of state and federal experts at a town hall on March 2. "They're sitting up here telling us nothing's wrong. I want you to tell me why everybody in my community is getting sick."
The CDC told CNN that the Epidemic Intelligence Service team's symptoms have not persisted since they left East Palestine.
Purdue University engineering professor Andrew Whelton, who has conducted independent studies in East Palestine since the derailment, said on social media this week that he submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC, asking for documents regarding the investigators' illnesses.
\u201cThis weekend, I submitted a #FOIA to the CDC requesting docs related to their team's chemical exposure illnesses and being pulled out of #EastPalestine #Ohio on March 7.\n\nIf true, why have other government employees, contractors, and the public have yet to be notified?\u201d— Andrew Whelton \ud83d\udd25\ud83d\udca7\u2744\ufe0f\ud83c\udf2a (@Andrew Whelton \ud83d\udd25\ud83d\udca7\u2744\ufe0f\ud83c\udf2a) 1680018563
"I think it is important for not only government officials to communicate with each other," Whelton told CNN, "but also to communicate their experiences with the public, so that everybody can understand what's going on, and how help needs to be brought to East Palestine and the surrounding areas."
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Khanna Leads Call for FDA to Address Flu and Cold Medicine Shortage
"The agency must provide clear guidance to healthcare providers about the steps they can take now to ensure that all children have the medicine they need," said Rep. Ro Khanna.
Feb 23, 2023
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna led several Democratic members of Congress in calling on the Food and Drug Administration to take more aggressive action to ensure families and healthcare providers have access to common over-the-counter medicines that have been depleted on drugstore shelves across the U.S. this winter.
Despite "round-the-clock efforts from manufacturers" of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, which can reduce fever and other symptoms for sufferers of the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and Covid-19, "demand for these medicines is outpacing supply," wrote the lawmakers to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.
Cases surged late last fall—earlier than in previous cold and flu seasons—leading to shortages, according to retailers and manufacturers. Politicoreported last month that drug shortage crises can also be caused by supply disruptions resulting from "companies cutting corners" and shutting down manufacturing lines, misallocation of drug supplies across the country, and hoarding of drugs by wholesalers in anticipation of shortages.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still reporting hundreds of thousands of new cases of Covid-19 per week, as well as hundreds of RSV cases. Seasonal flu activity is currently low nationally, but certain places across the country including New York City, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C. have reported recent case surges.
Honolulu-based journalist Nina Wu tweeted photos of nearly-empty cold medicine shelves on February 6.
\u201cMany stores are placing limits on purchases. Even cough drops in some stores are wiped out. \ud83d\udcf7 Longs Drugs\u201d— Nina Wu (@Nina Wu) 1675722401
Reps. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) last month urged Congress to pass their bipartisan proposal to require the federal government to keep a six-month stockpile of 50 generic medications for common health conditions.
"As Congress works to find a legislative solution regarding rates of production, we believe that the FDA can take further actions to address this issue," wrote Khanna (D-Calif.) in Wednesday's letter, along with Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Troy Carter (D-La.).
The FDA has already issued guidance for healthcare providers and pharmacists directing them to make ibuprofen in-house if they have certain ingredients available, but the lawmakers said the agency should also:
- Disseminate updated guidance to pharmacists and healthcare providers regarding available alternatives for pediatric ibuprofen and acetaminophen, including dosage conversions;
- Encourage additional transparency from manufacturers to the FDA regarding supply location and the distribution of consumer demand for pediatric fever-relieving medications, allowing the FDA to help assist manufacturers distribute supply more evenly, preventing such sudden shortages in different areas around the country; and
- Communicate proactively to caregivers regarding the shortage through a public outreach campaign to alleviate concerns and prevent misinformation.
"As cases of pediatric illnesses remain steadily high, a stronger response from the FDA is necessary to ensure that children are able to recover safely and swiftly," wrote the lawmakers.
Khanna noted in a statement to The Hill that his family has "experienced the impact of this shortage firsthand."
"The agency must provide clear guidance to healthcare providers about the steps they can take now to ensure that all children have the medicine they need," he said.
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Surging Number of US Teen Girls Face Sexual Violence and Extreme Sadness: CDC
"Young people in the U.S. are collectively experiencing a level of distress that calls on us to act," reads the study.
Feb 13, 2023
Child development experts and other advocates said Monday that new federal data regarding the struggles of adolescents in the United States should serve as an urgent call to action, as teenage girls reported facing rising levels of sexual violence as well as suicidal thoughts and depression in a survey taken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC's biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which was given to 17,000 teenagers at public and private high schools across the U.S. in 2021, found that nearly 1 in 3 adolescent girls seriously considered suicide that year—representing an increase of 60% over the previous decade.
Thirteen percent said they had attempted suicide in the past year, while 7% of boys reported the same, and 57% of girls said they felt persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row—"a possible indication of the experience of depressive symptoms," according to the CDC report.
"If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we've ever seen."
Among teenagers the CDC identified as LGBQ+, 69% reported feeling persistent sadness for at least two weeks in a row. The study did not specifically address the challenges faced by transgender students.
Twenty-two percent of LGBQ+ adolescents said they had attempted suicide.
Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, toldThe Washington Post that high rates of depression and suicidal ideation among teenage girls was "almost certainly" linked to another finding in the survey: 14% of girls reported that they had been forced to have sex—an increase of 27% since the last time the survey was taken in 2019.
"If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we've ever seen," Ethier told The Post. "We are really alarmed."
The rate of sexual assault was even higher among LGBQ+ teenagers, with 20% reporting they had been forced to have sex.
Regarding the hopelessness and desperation evident among LGBQ+ teenagers, Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital said he was "sadly" unsurprised, considering the wave of legislative attacks on transgender and gender-nonconforming Americans, including youths.
"When we legislate against LGBTQ+ teens & their families, they're listening, internalizing, and struggling," said Hadland.
\u201cNew CDC data out today: 1 in 5 lesbian, gay, bisexual teens attempted suicide in 2021. Rates in trans youth may be even higher.\n\nSadly, this doesn't surprise me. When we legislate against LGBTQ+ teens & their families, they're listening, internalizing, and struggling.\u201d— Scott Hadland, MD (@Scott Hadland, MD) 1676315621
Educator and advocate Cathy Davidson pointed out that depression, suicidal ideation, and increased sexual violence directed at girls all come amid "assaults on women's rights to their bodies" in state legislatures across the country. Dozens of abortion restrictions were imposed in 2021.
\u201cCould there really have been study of the huge rise in sexual violence, depression, suicidal thoughts by young girls without any mention of the Handmaid's Tale-esque assaults on women's rights to their bodies, via SCOTUS and state legislatures? Really? https://t.co/GeivkrtNuG\u201d— Cathy Davidson (@Cathy Davidson) 1676311563
The study did not include an accounting of what is behind the rise in sexual violence against teens, be it violence happening at home, at school, or in intimate relationships.
"It's really important to disentangle the relationships between the perpetrators and the victim-survivors to better understand the reasons why," Heather Hlavka, an associate professor of criminology and law studies at Marquette University, told The Post.
The CDC's recommendations focused on what policymakers and schools can do to better support teenagers, including implementing quality health education, improving school-based services for students who are struggling, and increasing school connectedness by providing "with social and emotional learning programs in early grades and youth development programs in middle and high school" and "professional development to educators on classroom management."
"These data make it clear," reads the report, "that young people in the U.S. are collectively experiencing a level of distress that calls on us to act."
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