Dozens gathered to hear updates from five diverse groups who have been studying the aftermath of the train derailment in East Palestine, more than 2 years ago.

Presenters included representatives from Case Western Reserve University, Texas A&M University, University of Kentucky, University of California, San Diego, and the University of Pittsburgh.

"Our study initially looked at a cross sectional of exposure to the train derailment so the proximity that you live to that and then looking at your somatic mutation rate and how that might change your genetic toxicity," Frederick Schumacher, associate professor at Case Western Reserve University said.

In other words, it'll give researchers an understanding of how chemical exposures will change your disease risk in 20 or 30 years.

It's a look at an individual's progression to diseases like cancer, cardiovascular or neurological and it's goes beyond just potential diseases.

"We were funded to do a supplement study beyond adults to look at actually young kids," Schumacher said. "So we're doing the same thing of looking at somatic mutations, but instead of looking at end points such as cancer or older diseases, we're looking at neurological development differences," he said.

It's all in an effort to see who would be more at risk for certain outcomes. Other studies looked into how much vinyl chloride was found in the body as well as testing for dioxins in the blood back in July 2023.

"There were 400 people who participated in our work and that's just so exciting, we're so grateful to them," Erin Haynes, professor at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health said. "Some of these chemicals were actually detected in their bodies, which is, it's interesting because the half-life in the body is just days, so it's like O.K. where is it coming from," she said.

Haynes said there's no reason to be fearful though.

"It's not alarming which is good because the levels were so low, but it was just, I'm gonna say it was confirming that they were exposed to vinyl chloride," Haynes said. "It could have been from something that they were exposed to, the air, like in the days before we collected or these chemicals could be stored in fat," she said.

People who lived one mile away from the derailment had significantly higher amounts of chemicals traced in their bodies.

"There's 19 individuals and I believe our number is like 74 percent of those 19 had a chemical detected in their body, whereas in the general population it's much lower," Haynes said. "This is two years later and now we know that the chemicals dissipate, the half-life is very short so if we collected today, I wouldn't anticipate seeing anything," she said.

Schumacher said some of his data has yet to come back, but it could potentially be ready before the end of 2025.