Over two years after an Ohio train derailment spilled hazardous chemicals into the environment, nearby residents are still facing health problems — and Pitt has received new funding to analyze the long-term health impacts.
On Sept. 26, 2025, Rep. Chris Deluzio announced that the National Institutes of Health awarded Pitt $440,513 in federal funding to continue research on the impacts of the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. It occurred less than one mile from the Pennsylvania border, and the research aims to assess its lasting health and environmental impacts on the East Palestine community and the surrounding Pennsylvanian areas.
On Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Vinyl chloride, a chemical used to produce plastic and that can pose serious risks to public health, was among the toxic materials in the train cars that spilled and entered the natural environment. Several cars spilled their contents into Sulfur Run, a tributary that leads to the Ohio River.
Vinyl chloride is identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a high-priority chemical and human carcinogen, and it has particularly toxic effects on the liver.
Exposure to chemicals resulting from the derailment has led to various health problems among residents in East Palestine, including skin lesions, memory loss, nausea, vomiting and cognitive issues.
Pitt is one of the universities leading the East Palestine Investigation Consortium, a research initiative created to assess and address the long-term impacts of the derailment.
Shortly following the derailment, Pitt launched initial research assessing the environmental and health impacts resulting from the incident. Research involved collecting air and water samples and working alongside community-based researchers in East Palestine.
According to the University, preliminary data from current research grants for the East Palestine derailment studies reveal compelling evidence of potential health impacts, with a considerable number of participants exhibiting increased liver enzyme levels — a potential indication that the liver is not functioning properly.
The new NIH funding will be provided as a five-year grant. Pitt researchers’ intended objectives for the new research are to conduct thorough assessments of liver and thyroid function in East Palestine community members and other potential health impacts related to exposure to the derailment, according to the University.
Focus on the liver and thyroid connection will advance scientific understanding of how interconnected problems with metabolism and hormones can occur following environmental chemical exposure, according to the University. Implications of this research will extend beyond the East Palestine incident to inform future disaster response and environmental health assessment protocols.
Maureen Lichtveld, dean of Pitt’s School of Public Health, said vinyl chloride exposure can lead to adverse health effects — both immediate and long-term — depending on the level and duration of exposure.
“From a public health perspective, we are most concerned about liver damage and liver cancer. Since cancer can take years to develop, it is important to follow people who have been exposed to vinyl chloride long-term, typically for five to 10 years,” Lichtveld said.
During the initial research period, Pitt researchers met with East Palestine and Beaver County community members shortly after the derailment to learn about the greatest concerns residents had and, in many cases, still have, according to Lichtveld.
“Among those concerns were persistent worries about the health of adults, but specifically children, and whether the water and air in their homes were safe to breathe and to drink,” Lichtveld said. “This is exactly what our current research is focused on.”
Lichtveld noted that mental health consequences can linger for many years in the aftermath of disasters like this, particularly for children.
“Of special importance is [the community’s] worry about the health of their children — not only the physical health concerns such as asthma, nose bleeds and skin rashes, but also stress and anxiousness,” Lichtveld said.
The East Palestine Investigation Consortium is planning a community meeting in November in East Palestine to relay research updates, answer questions and communicate their next steps to the community. The event will be open to the public and details will be announced in the next few weeks, according to the University.
Shortly after the East Palestine disaster, the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory also became involved with research relating to the derailment. The Collaboratory released a report analyzing train derailments in the Pittsburgh region and, more recently, a briefing centered around derailments in the Ohio River Basin. Findings show that accidents like these are more likely to occur near bodies of water.
Geetika Godavarthy, a recent Pitt graduate and an intern at the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory who was involved in the derailment research, theorized that the old and underfunded infrastructure within the Pittsburgh area may be a cause behind increased derailment incidents.
“Pittsburgh was definitely a hotspot. If you look at some of the maps and the proportionality of where these events are happening, in the Pennsylvania portion of the Ohio River Basin, we definitely did find that there were a lot of derailments happening,” Godavarthy said.
Godavarthy highlighted the significance of studying train derailment locations and impacts within the area.
“A huge part is the education portion,” Godavarthy said. “As research is getting done, making material to share the sheer volume of derailments that are happening, the impact of them and communicating that to as many communities in the area as possible is so important.”
Many communities are subject to environmental chemical exposure resulting from derailments and other human activities. According to the World Health Organization, between 2000 and 2020, there were over 1,000 technological incidents involving chemicals worldwide, affecting over 1.85 million people. Incidents involving hazardous chemical spills cause significant long-term impacts on both the ecosystem and human health.
“Above all, the health of the environment is inextricably linked to that of humans,” Lichtveld said. “Most environmental pollution is caused by us, and it harms people, animals and plants.”