The One-Minute Meeting

I am going to spend the entirety of today’s column exploring one topic: the frequency of hazardous materials spills in the United States. The toxic spill and fire in East Palestine, Ohio, direct attention to a risk that every community faces at some level. Trucks, trains and pipelines in our communities carry the chemicals and materials that we rely on for everything from food production to fuel for our vehicles.

In the first seven weeks of 2023 alone, there were more than 30 incidents recorded by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, roughly one every day and a half. This is a map of all of the hazardous chemical incidents that have occurred since the start of 2021:

This is not a column vilifying the chemical industry. We all depend on chemicals for food and fuel, plastics and pet food. And it has to get from place to place somehow.

But one in four Americans lives within three miles of a facility that stores or produces hazardous materials. The crash, spill and fire in East Palestine force us to consider the safety measures we take for granted but that keep chemical safety engineers and emergency managers up at night.