Weeks after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, residents continue to experience symptoms not anticipated with the low levels of chemicals to which they have been exposed. Health and environmental officials are at a loss to explain why this is so.

These officials might not appreciate that exposures to chemical mixtures may produce effects that differ from those attributable to the individual components alone. My research, as well as that of others, has shown that mixture effects can occur from exposure to levels far below those deemed safe by regulatory agencies and can attack the body in ways not predicted from a consideration of the toxicities of the individual chemicals. All the individual chemicals that Ohio residents are being exposed to are toxic. Combined, toxicity can be magnified. Some of these chemicals also promote absorption of others that ordinarily do not enter the body at toxic levels.

The events in Ohio should serve as a wake-up call here in Maine. We are experiencing wide-ranging contamination of our drinking water by PFAS chemicals. We are also home to many miles of routinely traversed rail lines and large numbers of petroleum storage tanks. Should any of these result in a chemical spill, a mixture that produces a toxic event similar to that in Ohio could be created. I urge Gov. Mills and the Legislature to address this issue.

Harold I. Zeliger, Ph.D.
chemical toxicologist
Cape Elizabeth