200 residents visit Pennsylvania's train derailment health resource center in first 2 days
DARLINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - Two hundred residents visited Pennsylvania's health resource center in its first two days to get answers after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed across the border in East Palestine, Ohio.
Staff from the departments of health, agriculture, environmental protection and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency have been helping residents in Beaver and Lawrence counties who have questions about their health, pets, air and water.
The governor's office said people have been looking for DEP consultation, medical evaluations, general public health information and help filling out Assessment of Chemical Exposure surveys.
The state Health Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have also gone door-to-door to 22 houses to conduct Assessment of Chemical Exposure surveys, which people who visit the center can also complete.
The center at the Darlington Township Building on Darlington Road is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through March 10. Darlington Township was within the one-mile radius that was ordered to evacuate during the controlled release and burn of five tankers.
Despite residents' reports of symptoms like nausea and headaches, local, state and federal officials continue to monitor the air and water and say both are safe. The Ohio Department of Health opened a medical clinic last week.
The governor's office said so far no measurements of vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride or phosgene have exceeded health-based thresholds for short-term exposure.
