LEXINGTON, Ky. — A team from the University of Kentucky will soon deploy to East Palestine, Ohio, to study the long-term effects of the recent chemical spill.

East Palestine is the site of a Feb. 3 train derailment that led to toxic chemicals being burned off and prompted an evacuation. UK’s College of Public Health will study how the chemicals affect indoor air quality, the safety of drinking water and any adverse health impacts to residents in the region.

“I love working with communities to help understand their exposure. When a community is concerned about a particular exposure, I love to jump in and help them,” said UK Professor Erin Haynes.

After the chemical spill and subsequent evacuation made national news in her native Ohio, Haynes is assembling a team of researchers to find out the short- and long-term environmental health effects of the disaster.

“We should never say we’re done looking at this community for potential exposures and health impacts,” Haynes said.

Knowing the impacts of the initial spill is important, Haynes said, but it’s also crucial to understand how the controlled burn may affect the wider region.

“I’ve not seen any data yet on these byproducts, the chemicals that perhaps formed when they were at high temperatures in the fire and how far that spread is,” Haynes said.

As days have turned into weeks, experts say the air quality is improved, but toxins could linger on the ground and in the water the community consumes and bathes in.

“Now it’s more of what’s in the soil and could be tracked into the home and then overtime, it’s also going to be the drinking water,” Haynes said.

Kentuckians living near the Ohio River shouldn’t worry too much about their water quality, according to Haynes and officials with Louisville Water.

“It’s dispersing into a much wider Ohio River and the concentrations are becoming low enough to not pose a significant health concern,” Haynes explained.

East Palestine and surrounding communities will remain the most impacted by the disaster. Those in central Kentucky should also not worry, as American Water customers only use the Kentucky River as a water source.

In the days since the derailment and controlled burn, residents’ concerns and questions have only abounded — amplified, in part, by misinformation spreading online.