Status Coup has reported ON THE GROUND in East Palestine, Ohio and western Pennsylvania eight times since the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical detonation. Unlike corporate and other independent media, we’ve STAYED ON THIS massive American health crisis and even bigger GOVERNMENT COVER UP. This continued investigative reporting takes a lot of resources. Please support Status Coup as a paying member for as low as $5 bucks a month.
We now have proof to back up what Status Coup has been reporting for three-and-a-half years: billion-dollar railroad company Norfolk Southern—with the Biden administration’s direct cooperation—unnecessarily chemically nuked East Palestine, Ohio and western Pennsylvania following its 2023 train derailment…
All to re-open its rail line quicker and not lose money.
WATCH BELOW my interview with Lesley Pacey, senior environmental officer with the Government Accountability Project [GAP], on new bombshell emails GAP was able to obtain that reveal and further confirm:
Multiple government agencies modeled the chemical plume that would form if Norfolk Southern unnecessarily burned five rail tankers carrying 1.1 million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride (Norfolk Southern burned the cars despite the owner of the chemicals they were carrying repeatedly advising against it).
The modeling BEFORE Norfolk Southern detonated the five rail tankers filled with vinyl chloride predicted as many as 1,900 people in "death possible" zones could die from lethal gas exposure and another 18,000 people could suffer from phosgene gas exposure. Phosgene was the lethal gas weaponized in World War 1 (85 percent of the 91,000 gas deaths in WWI were a result of phosgene or the related agent diphosgene.
Despite this risk, Norfolk Southern went ahead with burning the five vinyl chloride tankers—despite the owner of the vinyl chloride the company was transporting repeatedly advising against doing so given there was no imminent threat of an uncontrolled explosion.
The federal and state of Ohio government, knowing the risks of mass death and injury, allowed Norfolk Southern to burn the cars.
Government emails show officials were relieved that their deadly models did not go public. “Was wondering though if an IMAAC plot had gone public. Glad to hear it didn't??” officials wrote.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations hid these documents from the public for three and a half years.
Underneath this massive government/corporate cover up—which based on my decade of ON-THE-GROUND investigative reporting I can tell you is one of the biggest, most deadly government cover-ups in modern American history—is the human toll:
Cancer is spreading throughout East Palestine and western Pennsylvania as a result of residents being intentionally poisoned and sacrificed.
“There are cancers developing almost every week in East Palestine and someone dying of cancer almost every month,” Mindy Bish, an attorney representing East Palestine residents who are trying to remove themselves as participants in a $600 million dollar settlement, told NewsNation.
That settlement, reached in 2024, was based on East Palestine and western Pennsylvania residents being misled by their own attorneys—and having data hidden from them—that showed the alarming levels of contamination in their communities’ soil.
Three-and-a-half years later, cancer and other health issues continue to spread while most residents remain stuck in a still heavily contaminated area…
With zero government action and barely any media coverage.
Please let us know what you think of this report in the comments below.
Status Coup has reported ON THE GROUND in East Palestine, Ohio and western Pennsylvania eight times since the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical detonation. Unlike corporate and other independent media, we’ve STAYED ON THIS massive American health crisis and even bigger GOVERNMENT COVER UP. This continued investigative reporting takes a lot of resources. Please support Status Coup as a paying member for as low as $5 bucks a month.
This is horrific and needs to be on all the news channels. It's just one example of how our government knowingly chooses profit over people every day.