East Palestine church hosts chemical exposure study in wake of train disaster

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (RNS) — More than five months after a train carrying noxious chemicals derailed down the street from the hydraulic equipment supply store where he works, Tim Cumberlidge is still trying to find out exactly what he was exposed to.

“It’s not been a good ordeal all around. You can’t get a straight answer,” said Cumberlidge, warehouse manager at Brushville Supply and Hardware. The cleanup workers in neon vests, visible from the store, are still blocking the street, a constant reminder of the accident and a significant hindrance, he said, for customers and business.

Cumberlidge’s house was affected too, when authorities burned off the Norfolk Southern train’s toxic cargo a week later. “Since they’ve done the controlled burn, and that smoke came right over where I live, I’ve had problems with my lungs. And my wife ended up in the hospital for two weeks because she’s got COPD,” said Cumberlidge, using the acronym for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

It would be helpful, he said, to “get a straight answer about what’s going on in your system.”

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