On Feb. 3, 2023, a train carrying toxic chemicals crashed in northeastern Ohio, sending up a large black cloud over Ohio and Pennsylvania after officials decided to burn off the hazardous materials. As the chemicals lofted into the air, the pollution spread as far as 16 states, according to a new study.
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Toxic chemicals rained down from South Carolina to Wisconsin to New England following the accident, according to the new analysis in the Environmental Research Letters journal. Overall, the pollution spread over 540,000 square miles, or 14 percent of U.S. land area.
People closer to the accident reported rashes, nausea and headaches — but Gay said the low chemical concentrations farther away from the accident weren’t “toxic, but are pretty unusual at a lot of places.” Many of those pollutants can run off and affect marine and plant life.
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