What are the risks of materials released in the Ohio derailment?

Ahead of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's visit on Thursday to the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio, here is what we know about the scope of the incident: How much toxic material was released? Neither the Environmental Protection Agency nor Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train that derailed in the February 3 spill in East Palestine, Ohio, has said how much toxic material was in the train cars. Federal rules specify how much of any toxic chemical can be carried in a particular rail car, and based on experts saying the cars were likely to be full to be cost effective, Reuters calculated that up to 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride was likely aboard. Ila Cote, a toxicologist who worked at the EPA for nearly three decades carrying out disaster risk assessments on public health and is now a private consultant, said the long-term health damage, such as increased likelihood of cancer, from the short-term initial exposure to the toxic chemicals is extremely complicated to determine. Three days after the crash, state and local officials said concerns about a massive explosion as pressure built in rail cars carrying the toxic chemicals forced them to drain five cars of vinyl chloride into a makeshift ditch and purposefully set it ablaze.