[Too many politicians are bought and paid for by the corporations
that are killing us. Capitalism is the greatest disaster of all —
the engine behind every industrial accident in the US and every
get-out-of-jail-free card for negligent employers.]
[[link removed]]

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN 2023, INCLUDING EAST PALESTINE, OH, AND WEST
READING, PA, HAVE COST LIVES AND HURT COMMUNITIES  
[[link removed]]


 

Kim Kelly
June 20, 2023
Teen Vogue
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_ Too many politicians are bought and paid for by the corporations
that are killing us. Capitalism is the greatest disaster of all —
the engine behind every industrial accident in the US and every
get-out-of-jail-free card for negligent employers. _

, (NTSBGov/Handout via REUTERS)

 

We are living through an age of disasters. Each day the news cycle
brings fresh horrors, including mass shootings
[[link removed]],
widespread police violence
[[link removed]],
and rising hate crimes against Asian Americans and LGBTQ+
[[link removed]] people.
Sometimes it seems impossible to keep up with the tragedies, many of
which are steered by human hands, the result of choices made by
corporations, politicians, and their donors over whose safety and
comfort matters and whose does not
[[link removed]].
These choices often create a ripple effect, too, leading to unforeseen
consequences that invariably wreak the most havoc on the least
powerful. 

Recently we’ve seen a very public spate of industrial disasters that
have poisoned or threatened to poison entire working-class communities
in places like East Palestine, Ohio, and Philadelphia, and killed
multiple workers in West Reading, Pennsylvania, and one in
Newburyport, Massachusetts. 

On February 3
[[link removed]], a
Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, creating a
lingering nightmare for the town’s 5,000 inhabitants. Twenty of the
train cars
[[link removed]] were
carrying hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, butyl
acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene, and other toxic chemicals;
several of these caught fire when the train derailed, and vinyl
chloride leaked out. 

Officials ordered residents to evacuate ahead of a controlled burn
[[link removed]] on
February 6, which released a black cloud of chemicals
[[link removed]] into
the air above East Palestine. Though officials told residents it
was safe to return home on February 8
[[link removed]],
the townspeople and the land itself are still suffering aftereffects
four months later. 

Norfolk Southern has removed
[[link removed]] thousands
of pounds of contaminated soil and over a million gallons of
contaminated water from the area (in the weeks after the
derailment, thousands of dead fish
[[link removed]] were
found floating in the local river), while residents — and a team of
investigators
[[link removed]] from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — have reported
experiencing respiratory issues, headaches, and other ailments
following the crash. 

Government officials insist
[[link removed]] the
air and drinking water pose no hazards, but some residents are still
afraid to return home. Norfolk Southern is paying for lodging
[[link removed]] for
an unknown number of people, and others are bouncing between hotels
and roadside motels. “I have no idea how long we can continue to do
this,” Shelby Walker, a displaced East Palestine resident who’s
now living out of a hotel with her family, told PBS
[[link removed]] in
April. The company is currently facing over 30 proposed class action
[[link removed]] lawsuits
related to the disaster.

On March 29, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) introduced the Railway
Accountability Act
[[link removed]] with
fellow Democratic senators Bob Casey (PA) and Sherrod Brown
(OH), saying in a statement
[[link removed]]:
“This bill will implement commonsense safety reforms, hold the big
railway companies accountable, protect the workers who make these
trains run, and help prevent future catastrophes that endanger
communities near railway infrastructure. Working Pennsylvanians have
more than enough to think about already — they should never have
been put in this horrible situation.”

Reportedly, rail workers had long worried about safety hazards
[[link removed]] on
the specific train, nicknamed “32 Nasty,” that derailed in East
Palestine. And since that February catastrophe, multiple Norfolk
Southern trains have derailed in other locations. As recently as May
10, nine cars
[[link removed]] jumped
the track in New Castle, PA; there were no hazardous chemicals
involved this time. Sen. Fetterman characterized the crash
[[link removed].] as
“the same sh*t, different day from Norfolk Southern,” channeling
the frustration that many have felt over the lack of safety
precautions for rail workers. 

It may be my bias as a local showing, but it sure seems like
Pennsylvania has had an especially rough go this year in terms of
chemical-related industrial accidents. On Friday, March 24,
an equipment failure
[[link removed]] at the Trinseo
Altuglas manufacturing facility in Bristol Township dumped more
than 8,000 gallons
[[link removed]] of
latex emulsion chemicals — a cocktail that includes ethyl acrylate,
methyl methacrylate, and butyl acrylate, which was also present
[[link removed]] in
East Palestine — into Otter Creek. The creek empties into the
Delaware River, which provides Philadelphia with half its drinking
water. City officials sent an alert
[[link removed]] on a Sunday
afternoon warning residents to stock up on bottled water, which
predictably led to panic-buying across the region. 

Officially, the assurance given was that the drinking water was fine,
but there was a slight chance of contamination, and the alert was
framed as a “suggestion
[[link removed]]”
by Mayor Jim Kenney. The bungled communication, which relied
on cryptic updates and vague language
[[link removed]],
raised questions about the city’s water system
[[link removed]] and
left residents wondering how much we could trust the official
response. 

_The Philadelphia Inquirer_ reported that the Bristol plant has a
history of “contamination incidents”
[[link removed]] under
its previous owner, including federal investigations and documentation
surrounding chemical “releases” and spills in 2010, 2012, 2014,
and 2021. (The Bristol plant was acquired by Trinseo in 2021, and this
is the first accident under the new ownership.) 

Philly’s tap water quality isn’t exactly sparkling in the best of
times. Visions of Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi
[[link removed]] —
two other working-class, majority-Black cities with infamous, ongoing
water crises — exacerbated anxiety during what local artist Grim
Grim Grim, referencing a local linguistic quirk
[[link removed]], dubbed
“the Philadelphia Wooder Wars of 2023.
[[link removed]]”

While Philadelphians worriedly stocked up on bottled water at the
Acme, people an hour north in West Reading were dealing with a
horrific industrial accident of their own. On March 24, a massive
explosion ripped through the R.M. Palmer Company’s chocolate
factory, reducing the two-story building to rubble. Seven workers’
lives
[[link removed]] were
ultimately lost, and several survivors suffered grievous injuries.
Mark Baxter was unloading a delivery of melted chocolate in the
factory’s loading dock just before the explosion ignited; according
to a lawsuit against the company
[[link removed]],
he suffered second- and third-degree burns on 19% of his body, hearing
loss, and other injuries. 

R.M. Palmer is also facing allegations that the company ignored
workers who smelled gas
[[link removed]] inside
the building 30 minutes before the blast, and a wrongful death suit
[[link removed]] filed
by the family of Judith Lopez-Moran, a worker who died in the
explosion, is accusing the company of negligence. The suit alleges
[[link removed]] that
company supervisors "intended to mislead the factory workers... so
that the factory workers would continue working and so that factory
downtime would be minimized." R.M. Palmer, known throughout the region
for its iconic hollow chocolate Easter bunnies, has said
[[link removed]] the
company can’t publicly comment on ongoing litigation while the
National Transit Safety Board investigates the incident and that it is
assisting with the investigation.

Last month, yet another worker lost his life in a chemical explosion,
this time at a Seqens pharmaceutical facility in Newburyport, MA. On
May 4, a blast — the city's acting fire chief Stephen
Bradbury called
[[link removed]] it
a “seven-alarm hazardous materials” event — blew off the roof
and sent a chemical metal vat skidding into the parking lot.
[[link removed]] Four
workers were taken to the hospital with injuries, but it took
firefighters hours
[[link removed]] to
find Jack O’Keefe
[[link removed]]’s
body.  

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but it's
worth noting this particular facility’s track record: In 2019, the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found serious
violations
[[link removed]] in
the facility’s handling of hazardous materials and eventually issued
a $50,000 fine; that same year, the company (then known as PCI
Synthesis) reached a settlement
[[link removed]] with
the Environmental Protection Agency after the agency accused the
company of violating federal and state hazardous-waste laws. The
facility was also fined in 2020 and 2021.

In 2020, a chemical reaction
[[link removed]] caused
a series of explosions to rip a hole through the roof, and in 2021, a
chemical fire sent smoke pouring out of the plant’s roof vents.
“There is clearly a documented history from OSHA of negligence
committed by this nonunion company toward the safety of its
workers,” Al Vega, chief of strategy and engagement for the
nonprofit Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health
said in a statement
[[link removed]]. 

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said
[[link removed]] the
explosion was “just the latest avoidable disaster at this facility,
following years of serious violations, fines, and explosions. Three
disasters in three years is three too many. We need answers.” Sen.
Markey also signed a letter
[[link removed]] with
fellow Massachusetts Democrats Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Seth
Moulton that called on Seqens to explain how and why the explosion
happened. (In a statement
[[link removed]],
the company said it is “fully committed to working closely with the
authorities and relevant agencies to determine the cause of the
incident.”)

We do need answers. We deserve to know how major industrial companies
are able to get away with ignoring federal agencies, making costly —
even deadly — mistakes. According to the Coalition to Prevent
Chemical Disasters [[link removed]], there is,
on average, a chemical incident nearly _every day_ in this country;
every 24 hours or so, another life may be lost, another community may
be shattered, and another company may walk away with its hands in its
pockets, offering thoughts and prayers instead of real accountability
and action. 

A _Guardian_ report
[[link removed]] found
that, in the first seven weeks of 2023, the Coalition to Prevent
Chemical Disasters documented more than 30 incidents, from California
to Kansas to Louisiana, and that accident rates are getting worse. The
US also averages about three train derailments _per day_
[[link removed].];
though most are not major incidents, the frequency has increased
[[link removed].] as
profit-obsessed rail bosses have eroded workplace protections for
rail workers
[[link removed]].
“We call things ‘accidents,’” as National Transportation
Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told NPR. “There is no accident.
Every single event that we investigate is preventable."

We deserve to know why rail and factory workers seem to be ignored
when they raise concerns about safety. We deserve to be told the truth
about potential risks to our health and clear communication about what
is going on with our water supply. We deserve clean air, clean water,
and clean soil. We deserve to know that we and our loved ones will
make it home from work at night. 

And we deserve to know why corporations are able to get away with this
sh*t. Why aren't the people we’ve elected to represent us doing more
to punish offenders, protect workers (and their right to strike
[[link removed]] against
bad employers), and prevent these disasters from happening in the
first place? 

We deserve so much better. But the sad truth is that too many
politicians are bought and paid for by the very corporations that are
killing us. Capitalism
[[link removed]] is the greatest
disaster of all — the engine behind every industrial accident in the
US and every get-out-of-jail-free card for every negligent employer.
Until we do something about _that_, we are all potential victims. 

* industrial accidents
[[link removed]]
* railroads
[[link removed]]
* occupational safety and health
[[link removed]]
* East Palestine Ohio
[[link removed]]

*
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