In the United States there is one chemical accident every two days in the transportation of toxic substances or in the storage and use of chemicals, reports The Guardian. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the situation with chemical accidents only gets worse according to a number of indicators: the number of people who need to be evacuated is increasing, as well as the number of those who seek medical help.
In early February, a freight train loaded with highly toxic chemicals derailed in Ohio. Commenting on the disaster and its effects on East Palestine residents, Ohio Governor Mike Devine said that “no other community should have to go through something like this.”
However, as The Guardian notes, such accidents are occurring with startling regularity in the United States. Data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency and nonprofit groups that track chemical accidents show that accidents involving toxic substances – whether trains derail, accidents involving trucks, ruptured pipelines or leaks and spills at industrial plants – occur constantly across the country.
“These kinds of hidden disasters happen too often,” Mati Stanislaus, a former employee of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama’s administration, noted in an interview with The Guardian.
So, according to the publication’s calculations, such incidents in the United States occur on average every two days. In the first seven weeks of 2023 alone, the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters recorded more than 30 incidents – about one every day and a half. Since data collection began in April 2020, the coalition has counted a total of more than 470 incidents. The incidents vary in severity, but each involves an accidental spill of chemicals that pose a potential threat to human health and the environment.