Some have expressed concerns about the controlled release of toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, where a Norfolk Southern Railway freight train carrying vinyl chloride derailed on Friday. 

What You Need To Know

  • Vinyl chloride is a gas that can enter a person’s body by breathing it in

  • ​It is used to make a type of plastic called PVC, which can be found in housewares, car parts and pipes
  • Whether you get sick from vinyl chloride depends on how long, how often and how much you were exposed to it

Spectrum News spoke with Fred Malaby, an industrial hygienist with the The New England Consortium (TNEC) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

"It's monomer that is used in the plastic, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is what most people know it as," Malaby explained.

According to the National Cancer Institute​, vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer.

For more information, watch the interview above.