Residents Search For Reassurance After Ohio Toxic Train Derailment

AP: Upset Ohio Town Residents Seek Answers Over Train Derailment 
Residents of the Ohio village upended by a freight train derailment packed a school gym to seek answers about whether they were safe from toxic chemicals that spilled or were burned off. Hundreds of worried people gathered Wednesday in East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, to hear state officials insist yet again that testing shows local air is safe to breathe so far and promise that air and water monitoring would continue. ... Those attending Wednesday’s informational session, which was originally billed as a town hall meeting, had many questions over health hazards, and they demanded more transparency from railroad operator Norfolk Southern, which did not attend, citing safety concerns for its staff. (Orsagos, 2/16)

ABC News: Residents Of Ohio Town Say They Don't Trust Safety Claims After Train Derailment, Chemical Spill
East Palestine, Ohio, is the kind of town where neighbors greet each other at the store and lean on each other during hard times. Now, in the wake of a massive train derailment that expelled hazardous materials into the air, ground and water, residents are grappling with the fear that their hometown is no longer safe to reside in. (Jacobo, 2/16)

Politico: Longer, Riskier: Ohio Derailment Exposes Concerns About Train Length
The toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, is drawing new attention to the dangers of increasingly long freight trains — part of a series of cost-savings efforts by freight railroads that have drawn scrutiny from the industry’s critics. The sheer bulk of the 150-car train that went off the rails Feb. 3 is just one factor investigators are expected to consider amid the unfolding ecological disaster near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, which caused a massive fireball, forced an evacuation and has left a lingering odor, fears of lasting contamination and thousands of dead fish. But union officials, regulators and congressional researchers say the industry’s trend toward ever-growing train lengths is causing a host of safety concerns that regulators need to address. (Snyder, 2/16)

Bloomberg: Ohio Train Derailment Reveals Toxic Risks Of Plastic Chemicals
A Norfolk Southern Corp. train carrying hazardous materials derailed in fiery fashion on the night of Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. The risk of some of those dangerous materials exploding prompted officials to allow the train operator to run what’s called a “controlled explosion” on Feb. 6, releasing known carcinogens and a plume of black smoke into the air. Although local residents and businesses were evacuated beforehand and have since been allowed back, many remain hesitant to return home. (Hirji, 2/15)

In updates from Texas —

The Texas Tribune: Lubbock Has The Highest Rate Of Attempted Suicides Among Texas Children
Adam Hernandez was volunteering at a local middle school in mid-January when a student he mentors asked about his daughter, Jacquelyn. Jacquelyn was three weeks shy of her 18th birthday when she died by suicide in 2018. She left no note, and the unrelenting question was, “Why?” There were exciting moments on her horizon — she had just graduated from high school and wanted to be an EMT, and her sister’s birthday was coming up. (Lozano, 2/16)

The Texas Tribune: Black, Hispanic People Question Quality Of Water In New Texas Survey
Black and Hispanic people and those living in low-income Texas communities are highly concerned about the quality of their drinking water, a new survey shows. Commissioned by the nonprofit organization Texas Water Trade, the survey included responses from 650 households in both rural border communities and urban areas across Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Among those surveyed, 61% responded that they do not think their water is safe to drink. (Lozano and Salhotra, 2/16)

KHN: As Covid Grabbed The World’s Attention, Texas’ Efforts To Control TB Slipped 
Narciso Lopez has spent more than two decades working to control the spread of tuberculosis in South Texas. He used to think that when patient traffic into the clinics where he worked was slow, that meant the surrounding community was healthy. But when the covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, that changed. “I would be getting maybe three to four a month,” recalled Lopez, a TB program supervisor with Cameron County’s health department. In a matter of months, patients seeking care at the county’s two clinics dropped by half. “And then I wasn’t getting any at all,” he said. (DeGuzman, 2/16)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

AP: North Carolina Could Expand Medicaid For As Many As 600,000
With North Carolina’s two legislative chambers at odds over details of a comprehensive plan for health care access, the House gave tentative approval on Wednesday to a linchpin of any agreement with the Senate by voting to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults. With robust bipartisan support, the chamber voted 96-23 to accept more Medicaid coverage available under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It could cover potentially 600,000 people who usually make too much to qualify for conventional Medicaid but too little to benefit from subsidized private health insurance. The bill still faces one more House vote on Thursday before going to the Senate. (Robertson, 2/15)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Planned Parenthood Is Making The HIV Drug PEP Easier To Get In Chester, Delaware, Montgomery Counties, Philadelphia
Planned Parenthood is expanding suburban access to a treatment that can significantly reduce the risk of contracting HIV after a sexual encounter. (Laughlin, 2/15)

AP: Red States Join Push To Legalize Magic Mushrooms For Therapy
Shawn Blymiller spent 10 years of feeling mostly numbed while prescribed traditional anti-depressants, trudging through his day-to-day life as a suburban Salt Lake City father of two kids balancing the obligations of family and work selling technology software. When his son was diagnosed as having special needs a few years later, the stress became increasingly difficult to endure. So like many with treatment-resistant depression, Blymiller, 39, sought out alternatives and found one he said worked: Psychedelic mushrooms. (Metz, 2/15)

KHN: One State Looks To Get Kids In Crisis Out Of The ER — And Back Home 
It was around 2 a.m. when Carmen realized her 12-year-old daughter was in danger and needed help. Haley wasn’t in her room — or anywhere else in the house. Carmen tracked Haley’s phone to a main street in their central Massachusetts community. “She don’t know the danger that she was taking out there,” said Carmen, her voice choked with tears. “Walking in the middle of the night, anything can happen.” (Bebinger, 2/16)

On transgender health care —

AP: States' Push To Define Sex Decried As Erasing Trans People 
Nationally, conservatives are pushing dozens of proposals in statehouses to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows. But in measures like Kansas’, LGBTQ-rights advocates see a new, sweeping effort to erase trans people’s legal existence, deny recognition to nonbinary or gender-fluid people and ignore those who are intersex — people born with genitalia, reproductive organs, chromosomes and/or hormone levels that don’t fit typical definitions for male or female. (Hanna, 2/15)

Oklahoman: Okla. Legislature Advances Restrictions On Gender Transition Services
The author of House Bill 2177 is state Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore. He pushed back on Democrats' objections by arguing that his bill actually promotes gender-affirming health care because it affirms someone's gender assigned at birth. "You are born a male or born a female," West said. (Denwalt, 2/15)

AP: Mississippi Families Protest Bill To Limit Transgender Care
Transgender teens, their parents and supporters protested outside the Mississippi Capitol on Wednesday, calling on legislators to kill a measure that would ban gender-affirming health care for people younger than 18. House Bill 1125 passed the Republican-led House 78-30 on Jan. 19, with all opposition coming from Democrats. It awaits consideration in the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans. (Pettus, 2/15)

NBC News: Arkansas Lawmaker, At A Hearing, Asks Transgender Woman If She Has A Penis
An Arkansas lawmaker shocked onlookers this week when he asked a transgender health care professional about her genitals at a hearing on a bill that would prohibit gender-affirming care for minors. Gwendolyn Herzig, a pharmacist who is a trans woman, was testifying Monday in support of the treatment for minors during a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (Lavietes, 2/15)