BOMBSHELL: CDC Lied About Its Guidance Against Testing East Palestine Residents for Cancer-Causing Vinyl Chloride
"We did not set guidelines [against testing for toxic vinyl chloride]," CDC official told residents at meeting. But as SC broke, CDC most certainly did. "Someone is lying," East Palestine resident say
During a June 6th East Palestine disaster information session featuring experts from the CDC, EPA, and other government entities, a top official with the CDC issued a stunning denial in response to frustrated, sick East Palestine residents.
“That's not accurate,” Dr. Arthur Chang with the CDC said in response to Linda Murphy and Eric Cozza, two sick East Palestine residents, expressing concern over residents having to scramble to find doctors to provide scripts for them to get tested for toxic vinyl chloride—and the CDC recommending against doctors testing residents for it. On February 6th, five Norfolk Southern cars filled with the cancer-causing gas were detonated over the small village. Many residents have since fallen ill with a variety of serious ailments.
“I know that we did not set guidelines [against testing],” Chang answered residents. See the exchange below.
“Someone is lying,” East Palestine resident Cozza told Status Coup in response to the CDC official’s denial. Cozza, 48, whose house is 200 yards from where the train derailed and detonated, has been suffering with nosebleeds, burning eyes, headaches, chest pain, and short term memory loss since the derailment. His fiancee has suffered with rashes among other symptoms.
Based on our own extensive reporting, there’s ample evidence Cozza is correct and the CDC official’s denial is false.
In video obtained by Status Coup from an April conversation between Cozza and medical officials at Mercy Health in East Palestine, a Mercy official explains to Cozza why the health provider can not test his urine for vinyl chloride.
“There’s nothing to test for, there’s a certain timeframe they’re telling us it has to be done,” the Mercy official is heard saying. The official goes on to explain that the CDC is recommending they don’t test residents for vinyl chloride.
“We’re not getting all the answers either,” the Mercy worker begins. “All they are telling us is the same thing, the CDC. All they said is that the CDC doesn’t recommend it.” See below.
Later on in the video, Mercy Hospital Dr. Jeffrey Cohen—who agreed with Cozza that residents should be getting tested for Vinyl Chloride—told him that “somebody said supposedly that politics is mixing in there and they don’t want to be testing for these kind of things because they’re involved in the lawsuit.”
It’s not clear whether the politics Dr. Cohen was referring to was describing the CDC or other entities.
Cozza was ultimately able to obtain a script to get tested for vinyl chloride. Elevated levels were detected in his urine; his Thiodiglycolic Acid [TDGA] level, a marker for exposure to Vinyl Chloride, was 0.60. This was above the test’s reporting limit of 0.50.
A chemist, who Status Coup granted anonymity to due to his current professional position, explained that this was far beyond the threshold for concern and “clearly, the urine test indicates continued exposure [to vinyl chloride] since February.”
Beyond the Mercy Health officials revealing they were advised by the CDC against testing for vinyl chloride, there are also documents showing politicians were made aware of the CDC guidelines Chang denied the agency issued.
In April, yours truly reported on documents obtained by Status Coup that were prepared for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown ahead of the Senator’s meeting with East Palestine residents. The document clearly states that "residents have been attempting to access blood and urine testing from healthcare providers but have been denied lab services or even a doctor's order for the tests due to Regional Poison Control Center Clinical Guidance handed down to providers from CDC ATSDR."
The document provided for Senator Brown includes some of the CDC’s rationalizations for why residents shouldn’t be tested. Those included: an alleged lack of testing accuracy, long turnaround times, difficulty with interpreting the tests, and more. Important to note: these supposed issues are some of the same problems the EPA has with their own air testing—but that has not stopped them from testing and declaring East Palestine’s air, water, and soil safe based on testing data.
The chemist condemned the CDC’s reasoning.
“In my unscientific opinion, I believe the EPA and CDC are circling their wagons in an effort to cover their asses,” the chemist said. “They continue to show that they are more interested in protecting their bureaucracies than protecting the health and wellbeing of Americans suffering at the hands of corporate negligence and greed.”
In response to Status Coup’s request for comment on Chang’s denial that the CDC issued guidance against testing residents for vinyl chloride, a spokesperson for the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said that the CDC didn’t issue guidelines but, instead, worked with other health agencies to “develop a fact sheet for clinicians” (full statement at the end of this report).
Fact sheet, or guidelines, it’s a distinction without a difference. What is clear is that whatever guidance the CDC communicated to medical providers had a direct negative impact on residents' ability to access blood and urine tests to find out what their chemical exposure is following the chemical shower over their small village.
At the June 6th meeting, Chang also made concerning, if not horrific, comments to residents.
“We may not know how to get rid of vinyl chloride from the body, but we know how to treat those cancers,” he said.
Unfortunately, that is the reality that East Palestine residents may be left to face in the not-so-distant future. As we have reported, vinyl chloride is a carcinogen. Many of the chemical byproducts of combusted vinyl chloride including formaldehyde, dioxin, and others are carcinogens as well.
Stella Gamble, an East Palestine resident and grandmother, expressed her concern about this on my third trip to East Palestine in May.
“What about my grandkids? I’m probably going to be dead in 10 years, but what about them? They’re going to be 24 years old, they’re going to be 18 years old [...] This is going to affect them.”
Status Coup will continue investigating and uncovering what the national media COVERS UP. We would like to do MORE ON-THE-GROUND coverage in East Palestine. We don’t rely on corporate money or high-dollar ad placements, we rely on viewer support. You can gain access to exclusive content and help us fund this reporting today by BECOMING A MEMBER for as low as $5 a month.
Below is the CDC’s full response to Status Coup
“CDC and ATSDR did not set testing guidelines. There are several factors, such as dose, duration, and time elapsed, that make testing for exposure to toxic chemicals less helpful than we would like in order for them to be clinically useful.
To help clinicians manage their patients’ health concerns about chemical exposure, CDC and ATSDR worked with the Pennsylvania and Ohio Poison Control Centers, Ohio Department of Health, the Columbiana Department of Health, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health to develop a factsheet for clinicians. The clinician factsheet provides information to help health care providers work with patients to determine if blood and urine testing to assess a person’s health is appropriate on a case-by-case basis. Clinicians should exercise best clinical judgment and consult with regional experts for additional medical and patient management advice.
For individuals who have symptoms that they feel are related to exposure to chemicals, we suggest they see a medical provider who can help decide what tests may be helpful to understand their symptoms.”