Incomplete at best: EPA air monitoring numbers from East Palestine train derailment are released

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its first set of air quality monitoring numbers since Friday’s train derailment in East Palestine, OH.

The numbers come from a set of temporary, and mobile monitoring sites from both before and after the tanker cars carrying vinyl chloride were burned off on Monday.

WATCH: Smoke billows over East Palestine after controlled burn at train derailment site

The numbers show in the hours after the derailment on Friday there were already elevated levels in the category of particulate matter known as PM2.5.

On Friday and Saturday, about 30 readings were taken from 11 sites.

Some sites showed no elevation, but sites labeled “CMS-05″ and “CMS-06″ show levels above EPA standard of 0.025 PM2.5.

The highest level was a 0.064 at site CMS-06, at 10:10 p.m. which was about two hours after the initial derailment and fire.

Keep in mind this site was approximately five mile to the northeast of the crash location.

This map shows the location of the first set of air monitoring systems the EPA deployed in the... — This map shows the location of the first set of air monitoring systems the EPA deployed in the hours after the train derailment in East Palestine on Friday.(Source: U.S. EPA)

The second set of data released by the EPA was for air readings in the minutes and hours after the burn-off of vinyl chloride on Monday.

There are far more monitoring sites and the levels jumped from 0.064 to as high as 0.273 PM2.5.

Meaning, the particles in the air from the site labeled “PCR-10A” was more than four times higher than the previous high, before the chemical was ignited.

This map from the U.S. EPA shows the number of air monitoring stations set up, to take reading... — This map from the U.S. EPA shows the number of air monitoring stations set up, to take reading during and after the vinyl chloride was burned off at the East Palestine train derailment.(Source: U.S. EPA)

According to Dr. Brian Krupp, a professor at Baldwin Wallace University who has studied these mobile monitoring systems, the problem for East Palestine residents isn’t so much the increase in particles in the air, but what are those particles.

The EPA devices measure how many particles are in the air but they do not breakdown what’s in the air.

Copyright 2023 WOIO. All rights reserved.