For the first time ever, new report uncovers quantities and maps the route of vinyl chloride rail shipments by America’s largest producer, OxyVinyls — known for its role in the 2023 Ohio train derailment.
Clean Water Action joins Toxic-Free Future in calling for EPA, states, and The Home Depot to ban vinyl chloride and PVC plastic.
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, a new report released by Toxic-Free Future and Material Research reveals, for the first time, that at any given moment up to 36 million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride are being shipped via rail by America’s largest producer, OxyVinyls.
A year ago, a disastrous train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, alerted many of this dangerous practice—now, the new report, titled Toxic Cargo: How rail transport of vinyl chloride puts millions at risk, an analysis one year after the Ohio train derailment, shows this practice is widespread and continues to put communities at risk. The report is the first to map the most likely path of the longest train route that vinyl chloride regularly travels across the country, putting millions at risk from Texas to New Jersey.
“As we remember the train wreck that devastated the community of East Palestine a year ago, our new analysis shows that OxyVinyls, the company shipping hazardous vinyl chloride by rail, for use by retailers like The Home Depot that sell PVC products, is putting many more communities at risk,” said Mike Schade, director of Mind the Store, a program of Toxic-Free Future. “The people of East Palestine were forced to learn the hard way that tank cars of vinyl chloride rumbling through your town can mean disaster for your health and your community. It is outrageous that the amount of vinyl chloride involved in that tragedy reflects only a small percentage of the millions of pounds that is transported at any given moment. Retailers like The Home Depot need to take this lesson and move from PVC to safer materials that don’t put communities at risk.”
The report estimates that more than three million people live within a mile of the train route, which passes through eight major cities from Houston to Philadelphia. In addition to the East Palestine, Ohio disaster in 2023, another accident in 2012 in Paulsboro, New Jersey involved the same route. In both cases, the trains were traveling to OxyVinyls PVC plants in New Jersey using nearly 2,000 miles of track, the longest route in the country for rail transport of vinyl chloride.
Yearly, an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of this dangerous chemical travels from OxyVinyls chemical plants in Texas to OxyVinyls and Orbia PVC plastics factories in NJ, IL, and Niagara Falls, Ontario. The chemical is used to make PVC building materials and other products sold at major retailers, like The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement chain. In conjunction with the new report, today Toxic-Free Future sent a letter to The Home Depot CEO, launching a campaign urging the company to phase out PVC and transition to safer solutions.
“New Jersey residents and workers face health risks and potential disaster each and every day as train cars of vinyl chloride roll through majority Black and Brown neighborhoods (in Camden and Paulsboro) on their way to the production lines of the OxyVinyls and Orbia chemical plants in Pedricktown, NJ – adding to the injustices and disproportionate body burden of pollution they bear," said Amy Goldsmith, NJ State Director of Clean Water Action. "If we want to prevent future signature forms of liver cancer or bone degradation in the hands of those exposed in/near the Oxy plant, rail corridor or as first responders, then we must employ the best and only true line of protection – phase out vinyl chloride and PVC in products while making polluters address the impacted communities and workers as we transition to safer alternatives."
- Read Toxic-Free Future's full press statement here.
- Read the report and map here.
- Read additional quotes from Toxic Cargo report here.
- Read Toxic-Free Future’s letter to the Home Depot CEO here.
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Toxic-Free Future is a national leader in environmental health research and advocacy. Through the power of science, education, and activism, Toxic-Free Future drives strong laws and corporate responsibility that protects the health of all people and the planet. www.toxicfreefuture.org
Clean Water Action is proud to be a part of Toxic-Free Future. Since Clean Water Action's founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, the organization has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking, and people power to the table. www.cleanwater.org