Air At Ohio Train Derailment Deemed Safe After Toxic Fumes Dissipate
Around-the-clock testing, AP explains, has happened inside and outside the evacuation zone in the village of East Palestine, Ohio. The fires that deliberately destroyed toxic chemicals are now done, and the air is at safe levels. Medicaid expansion, homelessness, and more are also in the news.
AP:
Residents Can Return After Air Deemed Safe From Derailment
Evacuated residents can return to the Ohio village where crews burned toxic chemicals after a train derailed five days ago near the Pennsylvania state line now that monitors show no dangerous levels in the air, authorities said Wednesday. Around-the-clock testing inside and outside the evacuation zone around the village of East Palestine and a sliver of Pennsylvania showed the air had returned to normal levels that would have been seen before the derailment, said James Justice of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2/9)
ABC News:
Why The Toxins From The Ohio Train Derailment Could Have Posed Deadly Threats For Residents Nearby
Although the controlled releases were considered "low-level," the inhalation of fumes of vinyl chloride could cause dizziness, nausea, headache, visual disturbances, respiratory problems and other health-related issues, Ashok Kumar, a professor in the University of Toledo's department of civil and environmental engineering, told ABC News. (Jacobo, 2/9)
AP:
Fiery Ohio Derailment Raises Railroad Safety Questions
The fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals when it went off the tracks — sending a huge plume of smoke in the air and forcing residents of a small Ohio town to evacuate — has highlighted the potentially disastrous consequences of train accidents and raised questions about railroad safety. The railroad industry is generally regarded as the safest option for most goods and federal data show accidents involving hazardous materials are exceedingly rare. But with rails crossing through the heart of nearly every city and town nationwide, even one hazardous materials accident could be disastrous, especially in a populated area. (Funk, 2/9)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
AP:
Mississippi Senate Passes Postpartum Medicaid Extension
Mississippi state senators passed a bill Tuesday that would let mothers keep Medicaid coverage for a year after giving birth, up from the current two months. “This is the exact same bill that we passed last session three times 45-5,” said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven. State senators voted last year for an extension, but it failed in the House amid opposition from the Republican House Speaker, Phillip Gunn. (Goldberg, 2/8)
AP:
Democrats Push To Let All Residents Buy Into MinnesotaCare
Lawmakers went to work Wednesday on a proposal to allow all residents to buy into the state-run MinnesotaCare health insurance program, not just low-income workers struggling to get by. Democratic legislators and Gov. Tim Walz have been pushing for several years to expand MinnesotaCare into a low-cost “public option” for health insurance that would be available to everyone. Now that Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office, expanding the program is one of their top priorities for the 2023 session. (Karnowski, 2/8)
AP:
California Health Program Successfully Cut Hospital Visits
A five-year experiment aimed at improving care for some of California’s most at-risk Medicaid patients — including homeless people and people with severe drug addictions — resulted in fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits that saved taxpayers an estimated $383 per patient per year, according to a review released Wednesday. The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research said that for every 1,000 people enrolled in California’s Whole Person Care pilot program, there were 45 fewer hospitalizations and 130 fewer ER visits when compared with a similar group of patients who were not in the program. (Beam, 2/9)
AP:
Sen. John Fetterman Hospitalized After Feeling Lightheaded
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who suffered a stroke during his campaign last year, was hospitalized Wednesday night after feeling lightheaded while attending a Senate Democratic retreat, his office said. Initial tests at George Washington University Hospital did not show evidence of a new stroke, Fetterman’s communications director, Joe Calvello, said in a statement issued Wednesday night. Doctors were running more tests and the senator remained at the hospital for observation, according to the statement. (2/9)
AP:
High School Sports Group Rethinks Menstrual Cycle Questions
Facing blowback, the director of Florida’s high school sports governing body is backing away from using an eligibility form that requires female athletes to disclose their menstrual history in order to compete. Instead, the executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association is recommending that most personal information revealed on medical history forms stay at the doctor’s office and not be stored at school. (Schneider, 2/8)
KHN:
‘The Country Is Watching’: California Homeless Crisis Looms As Gov. Newsom Eyes Political Future
Driving through the industrial outskirts of Sacramento, a stretch of warehouses, wholesale suppliers, truck centers, and auto repair shops northeast of downtown, it’s hard to square California’s $18 billion investment in homeless services with the roadside misery. Tents and tarps, run-down RVs, and rusted boats repurposed as shelter line one side of the main thoroughfare. More tents and plywood lean-tos hug the freeway underpasses that crisscross Roseville Road, and spill into the nearby neighborhoods and creek beds. (Hart, 2/9)
On health care in prison and jails —
AP:
Organs In Exchange For Freedom? Bill Raises Ethical Concerns
A proposal to let Massachusetts prisoners donate organs and bone marrow to shave time off their sentence is raising profound ethical and legal questions about putting undue pressure on inmates desperate for freedom. The bill — which faces a steep climb in the Massachusetts Statehouse — may run afoul of federal law, which bars the sale of human organs or acquiring one for “valuable consideration.” It also raises questions about whether and how prisons would be able to appropriately care for the health of inmates who go under the knife to give up organs. (LeBlanc, 2/8)
The Houston Landing:
Texans With Mental Illnesses Are Dying In Houston-Area Jails
After hours of administering state testing for her Houston area middle school students, Rowena Ward glanced at the phone silenced in her desk drawer to find dozens of missed calls from unknown numbers. Her first thought was one of relief: Maybe her son, Rory, had been released from the Harris County Jail. Maybe he was finally ready to come home after a decade on the streets. Maybe this time he would take the medications to regulate his bipolar and schizophrenia disorders. (Stuckey, 2/9)
