S 4045 Introduced

East Palestine Health Monitoring

Last month, Sen Vance (R,OH) introduced S 4045, the East Palestine Health Impact Monitoring Act of 2024. The bill would require HHS to conduct a study on the health effects of the 2023 East Palestine, OH train derailment. The bill would authorize $2 million per year through 2028 for the study.

Definitions

Section 2(c) provides the single definition of key terms used in this bill; “appropriate congressional committees”.

Study

Section 2(a) would require the Department of Health and Human Services, acting through the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR) to award a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement to an eligible entity, for purposes of conducting a study on the human health impacts as a consequence of the February 3, 2023, train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and subsequent venting and burning of liquid chemicals. The entity would be a group of public or private institutions of higher education that has a physical presence in the two States directly impacted by the derailment, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

An annual progress report on the study would be required to be submitted to Congress with a final report due in five years.

Section 2(d) provides HHS with an annual authorization for the study of $2 million through 2028.

Moving Forward

While Vance is not a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, one of his three cosponsors {Sen Casey (D,PA)} is a member. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I would expect to see some Republican opposition to this bill because the results of such a study would likely be used to justify additional lawsuits against Norfolk Southern, the railroad involved in the incident. Still I expect that the bill would have sufficient bipartisan support to pass in Committee. I do not expect to see this bill reach the floor of the Senate, though its language could be expected to be offered as an amendment to the DOT spending bill or transportation authorization bill.

Commentary

This is a little bit late (but better late than never) to be starting this sort of post-accident health effects study. To be most effective, this should start within hours or days of the incident. That cannot, of course, happen if we need to rely on the local congressional delegation to put together study legislation and attempt to push it through Congress each time such accidents happen. There should be statutes in place to require the EPA, DOT, and HHS to conduct such studies any time there a significant chemical release occurs. DOT should fund studies for transportation related incidents and the EPA for fixed site accidents.