Residents Near East Palestine Report Health Issues

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — (WPXI) – Residents living near the East Palestine train derailment site are reporting a lot of health concerns. Rashes, sore throats, headaches and runny eyes are the most common complaints 11 News has heard from folks living in and around the original evacuation zone in East Palestine, Ohio and Darlington Township in Beaver County. However, it’s not all physical symptoms. The uncertainty has a lot of people feeling on edge and concerned about their long-term health. Folks have also been sharing pictures of the rashes they say they’re experiencing just from being in their homes. Some are so severe they look like chemical burns. Our news partners at Channel 11 talked to one neighbor, Eric Cozza, who said his wife has an autoimmune disease and her rashes have been so bad, they had to go to the emergency room. Cozza lives .3 miles from the derailment site. He’s lived in East Palestine his entire life and said he’s never experienced the symptoms he’s now dealing with. He said he won’t let his kids or dogs in the yard because he’s afraid the soil is contaminated. “Headaches, non-stop headaches,” Cozza tells Channel 11. “Yesterday I went to Boardman for roughly two hours. All my symptoms went away. When we got home, they all came back.”