(NewsNation) — An independent expert who tested the area around East Palestine, Ohio, following a toxic train derailment and fire says residents were misled about the health dangers they faced.
Scott Smith blames regulators for not doing a deep enough dive into contaminants that linger following the February 2023 catastrophe. Now, hundreds of residents have filed a lawsuit claiming there was a conspiracy to deny them health care as they exhibited signs of illness.
“It’s pretty simple: I say, you can’t find what you don’t look for,” Smith, president of nonprofit testing firm Blue Shirt Justice League, told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Thursday. “My heart totally goes out to the residents, and to gaslight these residents in East Palestine is just unacceptable.”
Smith said he did 31 rounds of environmental testing during 27 trips to East Palestine.
“I found a mixture of chemicals unprecedented, from dioxins to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to persistent chemicals, that do not go away, that build up in your body,” he said.
Smith contends corporations and “captured” government agencies tend to collude following environmental disasters like the one in Ohio. He said he’s hopeful the Trump administration sets things right, following a visit to the site by Vice President JD Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin earlier this year.