On Feb. 20 and 21, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Texas A&M University monitored air pollution in East Palestine, Ohio using Carnegie Mellon's Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies(opens in new window)' Mobile Air Quality Lab.

During their time in East Palestine, the teams found that all values of benzene, toluene, xylenes, and vinyl chloride were below the minimal risk levels for intermediate (15 days to one year) exposures as set by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. There were no "hot spots" detected by mobile sampling. This analysis corroborates the data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) between Feb. 8 and Feb. 22 as shown in Figure 1 (at right).

Acrolein levels, however, ranged from five times lower to three times higher in East Palestine on Feb. 20 than those in Downtown Pittsburgh, whose concentrations are typical of other cities across the country. The team used previously collected air quality concentrations in Pittsburgh as a standard sample for comparison. This analysis confirms potential long-term health concerns previously noted by the EPA's acrolein air data. Several of the EPA samples were above the intermediate levels. The map in Figure 2(below) shows the strong geographic acrolein variation within the East Palestine community.

The mobile sampling was led by Presto in collaboration with Weihsueh Chiu, Ivan Rusyn, and Natalie Johnson of Texas A&M University.