Concerns over longterm health effects linger in East Palestine

Two years ago, East Palestine became the center of a toxic train disaster, but today, fears extend beyond the initial explosion, fires and evacuations.
John Hiatt, a former railroad employee from Livingston, Montana, has seen what happens when dangerous chemicals seep into a community over time.
"So many similarities as this story unfolds, and I just can't help but feel for these people," Hiatt said.
Hiatt says several different railroads started gradually dumping chemicals in the 1950's and 1960's.
"Ours was more of a slow motion derailment because the chemicals in Livingston, Montana, were dumped into our system gradually, day by day, over a period of years by a couple of different railroads," Hiatt said. "They had a shop there, and they were using cleaning solvents that they were dumping directly into our groundwater, and, you know, over a million gallons. We started noticing the chickens that were laying eggs, they would break when they laid them because the shells were too thin, and dogs with tumors hanging off of them. And there was some horror stories of calves being born with two heads. I never personally saw that, and I don't know but, but it was, it was just freaky."
The revelation of that contamination brought more questions than answers, as illnesses mounted in the community.
"After it was discovered that there was a million gallon plume of chemicals floating under underneath us in our groundwater, and that's when people started looking around at each other, going, oh, well, that maybe that explains why she lost three babies. Maybe that explains why this whole part of town has people with MS cropping up all over the place. It sure seems to me like a lot of people that I know have come down with different forms of cancer and things like that, it's, scary."
Now, people living in and around East Palestine wonder what's next for them? Researchers from the University of Kentucky and others are tracking health effects in those exposed.
"We've been able, in our research study, to screen for PTSD, and we're seeing quite a high level of PTSD," Hayes said. "The disaster had numerous chemicals which can cause respiratory illness and then the potential for long term development of a chronic disease and issues we honestly do not know the exact health effects that are going to be evident long term, and that's why it's the the research and the health monitoring is so important. These chemicals definitely cause acute reactions, upper respiratory even lower respiratory effects, rashes, dizziness, headache, but they can also have long term consequences. We don't know what the consequences of this particular one will be. That's why we need to monitor closely. But cancer is definitely on the possibility list."
Medical experts say ongoing testing and monitoring will be critical to understanding the full impact of this derailment.
Hayes is encouraging people to visit the resiliency center in East Palestine to take advantage of any mental health treatment resources available.