Concerns have been raised by lawmakers and experts about the potential effect dioxins released from the fire near East Palestine could have on the food chain.
Marc Glass, principal environmental consultant at Downstream Strategies, who has advised state and federal projects on contamination in West Virginia, toldthat the particles would be measurable and were"probably more significant" in terms of their ecological impact than the other chemicals as they were less volatile and therefore"very persistent."
The EPA has not published any data on whether dioxins and chemically-similar furans have been detected in the environment. Published data shows that Dibenzofuran was present in water sampling, but no mention is made of the toxic substances in the air or surface soil.asked the EPA whether it was monitoring dioxin and furan levels, but it did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
"So all those black plumes of smoke that you saw coming out would surely have contained [a] fairly significant mass of these dioxin and furan compounds," he added. Unlike the toxic chemicals spilled from tanker cars, which are now being excavated from the ground and aerated out of nearby waterways, dioxins and furans"they don't break down very readily in sunlight or natural weathering processes and so once they're generated, they tend to persist in the environment," he noted.
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