Dioxins are a group of persistent environmental pollutants that last in the ground and body for years and have been one of the major environmental problems and controversies in the United States. “Vinyl chloride is bad, dioxins are worse as carcinogens and that comes from burning,” Donahue said. Neil Donahue, a professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University in nearby Pittsburgh, said he worries that the burning could have formed dioxins, which are created from burning chlorinated carbon materials. It’s now a state park, though I’m not sure who would want to have a picnic there. What few people remember is how the town of Times Beach, Missouri was evacuated, purchased by the federal government, leveled and had its zip code removed, from far, far less dioxin contamination. And the contamination is so serious that even soil tracking will spread significant amounts. And via land and water, the toxins can spread in many directions, via water, soil movement and air (since the prevailing winds are only an average). This massive plume will spread far and wide, and is being blown by the prevailing winds across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York State, toward the population centers of the northeastern U.S. Dibenzofurans, or furans for short, are identical in their toxicity but spoken about less often. Note that dioxin goes by several other names, including TCDD and is sometimes abbreviated 2,3,7,8. It has turned many, many miles into no-man’s land. This mess of 14 tanker cars (really, many more, but 14 had vinyl chloride) was then set on fire by the government, apparently to make it easier to clear the railroad tracks. Burning vinyl is the most serious source of dioxin in the environment - whether from trash incinerators, house fires or chemical spills.
There were reportedly 14 tanker cars full of vinyl chloride, a precursor to polyvinyl chloride - that is, vinyl. Most coverage of the train wreck in Palestine, Ohio is missing one word: dioxin.
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