HARRISBURG, Pa. — A new Health Resource Center opened by Governor Josh Shapiro's administration to help Pennsylvanians with health concerns or other questions in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment has already helped connect 200 people with resources and services in its first two days of operation, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said Thursday.
The Center serves residents of Beaver and Lawrence Counties, which are near the derailment site on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.
Staff from DOH along with the Departments of Agriculture, Environmental Protection (DEP), and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) are also on-site answering residents’ questions about their health, pets, farm animals, and air and water quality testing, the department said.
In the first few days, the most sought assistance has included DEP consultation, medical evaluations, general public health information and support with the Assessment of Chemical Exposure (ACE) surveys, the DOH said.
The Health Resource Center is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through March 10 at the Darlington Township Building, located along 3590 Darlington Rd.
Additional services include access to health care providers from DOH, the Primary Health Network, Beaver County Behavioral Health Services, and local pastoral care services.
Earlier this week, DOH staff, partnering with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), made door-to-door visits at the 22 households within the one-mile evacuation zone to conduct ACE surveys, the DOH said.
Door-to-door visits will expand in the coming days and weeks, according to the department. Residents who visit the Health Resource Center in Darlington will also have the opportunity to complete the on-site survey.
In the past two days, DOH preparedness and epidemiology staff, in partnership with Dr. Michael J. Lynch from the Pittsburgh Poison Center, also conducted three educational webinars for more than 580 healthcare providers from 17 Pennsylvania counties, the DOH said.
The webinars provided information about what healthcare providers should consider when seeing patients in their offices, and how to address the real health concerns of residents affected by the derailment aftermath.
The next phase of the health care response includes personal outreach to first responders who were on-site following the train derailment. DOH staff will be carefully assessing any symptoms, experiences, and concerns about the impact of the train derailment on their lives as emergency personnel.
Health, environmental, and safety officials from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and multiple federal agencies are working together to continually monitor air and water quality in the region. Monitoring has been in place since the incident began, including the controlled vent and burn timing, the fire afterwards, and the days since. So far, no measurements of vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, or phosgene have exceeded health-based thresholds for short-term exposure.
PEMA has established an online dashboard where the public can find one-stop-shop information on air and water testing, health resources, cleaning services, how to get in touch with Norfolk Southern and much more.