26 posts from Thursday, June 19, 2025

Hey, guys, Vice President J.D. Vance here, and I want to take you back to something that happened early on when I was a United States senator. There was a terrible train crash, and then there was a controlled burn of toxic chemicals that went into the atmosphere in East Palestine, Ohio, a little town in the northeastern corner of the state of Ohio. What happened then is that people got very worried, and I've been to East Palestine a number of times, and they're very worried about what are the long-term impacts of these chemicals in the water, in the air. What effect does it have on their kids and grandkids after five years, 10 years, 15 years of exposure? And the crazy thing is, number one, we didn't have a good answer to that question. Science had never actually tried to understand what the long-term exposure of these trace chemicals would do to people. And the second crazy thing is that as much as I tried as a United States senator to work with the Biden administration, they refused to do anything to actually study the effects of these long-term exposures on the people of East Palestine. Well, now we have a new president and a great new secretary of health and human services, and he's got an incredible announcement. We're finally going to study the effects on these chemicals and finally get to the bottom of what effect this terrible train crash and the ensuing consequences had on the people of East Palestine. I want to start by thanking my friend, Vice President J.D. Vance, for his continued and persistent interest in this issue, which many Americans have already forgotten. On February 3rd, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. A wreck involved 38 cars carrying hazardous chemicals, which ignited and then spread in these prolonged fires. East Palestinian community members immediately began experiencing a range of initial health symptoms, including headaches and respiratory and skin and eye irritations, prompting concerns about the broader long-term impacts on maternal and child health. At the urging of Vice President, the National Institute of Health under my direction has launched a five-year, $10 million research initiative to address health outcomes stemming from this calamity. This is the first large-scale coordinated multi-year federal study focused specifically on the long-term health impacts of the East Palestine disaster. The program will support robust community-engaged epidemiological research to understand the impacts of exposures on short and long-term injuries. It will also support public health tracking and surveillance of the community's health conditions to help us make informed healthcare choices and take appropriate preventive measures. I want to thank Vice President Fass for not forgetting about the people of East Palestine for making this an important issue and for allowing us to launch this important initiative. This is a big announcement, guys. I'm very, very excited about it. I am absolutely delighted to make this announcement today and I want to thank Vice President Fass and Secretary Kennedy for staying on this issue. The purpose and goal of the NIH, the mission is to advance the health and well-being of the American people, and this is a concrete way that we're going to do that. The NIH is working to ensure that the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are listened to, cared for, and they get the answers they deserve. Today, the NIH has established a program to coordinate health-related research with public health department needs and clinical practice to respond to the health effects of the derailment. The train was carrying hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol, and benzene residue, and community members have experienced a range of health issues following the incident. The NIH's multidisciplinary research program will focus on public health tracking and surveillance of the community's health conditions to support healthcare decisions and preventative measures. Importantly, the program will be community-led. It'll emphasize extensive well-coordinated communications among researchers, study participants, community stakeholders, and healthcare providers, and others to provide a comprehensive approach to address the affected community's health concerns. The NIH intends to allocate up to $10 million across five years, the deadline to submit proposals to July 21, and we anticipate starting research this fall. Thank you so much, and I'm so proud to be working on this effort with you guys. Thank you, guys. I want to thank the president for making this possible, and thank these two guys for their hard work to actually implement this. This is a very big day, not just for the people of East Palestine, but for anybody who wants to understand the connection between the chemicals that we use every day and the effects that it has on people's self. No one has tried to do this in this particular way. I think it's going to benefit millions of Americans. We're going to know more than we knew because of the hard work of the guys standing next to me.

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"We will make America great again. God bless you!"

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