The embattled CEO of Norfolk Southern, who makes $4.5 million a year, is now defending his decision to detonate toxic train cars.
Alan Shaw was called by residents and elected officials in East Palestine, Ohio, to come into town and answer locals’ questions about the long-term effects of chemicals dumped into the ground and waterways after a train derailment earlier this month reached.
Railroad officials bid farewell to a community meeting last week after experts claimed Norfolk Southern should not conduct a “controlled burn” of two cars loaded with vinyl chloride to mitigate the effects.
One lawsuit alleges that the company likely made things worse by releasing a chemical warfare agent banned after World War I.
But Shaw – who makes $4.5 million a year and owns more than 20 properties and two boats – is now defending his decision as he made a rare appearance in town on Sunday.
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw made a rare appearance in East Palestine, Ohio on Sunday
Shaw insisted that the plume of black smoke released after a controlled explosion on February 6 proved it was a success
Speaking to WKBN, Shaw doubled down on his promise that Norfolk Southern will clean up the chemicals released after one of its trains derailed on February 3.
“It was devastating for the community,” he said.
“I want to make sure you understand, I’m terribly sorry this happened to the community,” Shaw added. ‘Norfolk Southern is fully committed to doing what is right for this community.’
He then went on to say he was pleased with the cleanup so far, only to concede that he “doesn’t know where the dangerous soil and water are being transported.”
And, Shaw said, blowing up five train cars loaded with vinyl chloride was the “right step” to mitigate the threat posed by the cancer-causing chemicals – he insisted a “terrifying” plume of black smoke after controlled combustion proved there was a Success was and prevented a ‘much riskier event.’
“I understand why this has garnered a lot of national attention,” Shaw told local news station. “What we’re trying to do is work closely with local environmental cleanup leaders to get the right, data-based, science-based information.
“All the misinformation out there is really causing a lot of problems, frankly for people in this community.”
But the CEO declined to discuss how long the company will remain in the city, only noting that it has set up a command center in a former east Palestinian school and declined to comment on how much the company would spend on the cleanup .
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is now dispatching a team to help with the cleanup.
Shaw said he was pleased with the ongoing cleanup effort in eastern Palestine, Ohio, where a train from Norfolk Southern derailed on February 3
Sil Caggiano, an expert on hazardous materials, previously said Norfolk Southern didn’t have to blow up the chemicals and only did so because it was the cheapest option
The rare interview comes just days after Sil Caggiano, an expert on hazardous materials, claimed the rail company had many options to mitigate the effects of the toxic chemicals its train carried – but chose to keep the carriages in the Blow up to save money.
He said he “never heard of any railroad company actually detonating its own containers” as Norfolk Southern did on February 6 in its nearly 40 years of responding to train crashes and derailments.
“I’m not saying it’s never been done,” he told the World Socialist Website. “But I haven’t seen any case studies, and I’ve looked at pretty much every accident that has happened, every incident involving railroad cars.”
Caggiano served as a battalion commander for the Youngstown, Ohio Fire Department before retiring two years ago after 39 years. He also sat on the state’s Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Technical Advisory Committee, which oversaw the equipment and training of all HazMat teams in Ohio.
He explained that Norfolk Southern “took a car that could have blown up and ripped up another or two and turned it into a safe bet.”
Alternative options to mitigate the risks of vinyl chloride, Caggiano said. “Would have taken too long and cost them too much money.
“If they had to put out the fire, they would still have to treat each of these containers and their contents as hazardous waste, none of which are marketable, and they would have to get rid of all these contaminants,” he said.
“That way they don’t have any more contamination,” Caggiano continued. ‘It burned down and spread God knows how far.
“I think they got off very cheaply,” he said.
The former fire chief also noted that a black cloud released by the “controlled burning” of the wagons “covered a very large area”.
“I got a picture of a plane taking off from Pittsburgh and there’s this huge black spot in the middle of the clouds.”
Caggiano has previously likened the “controlled burn” to bombarding the city “with chemicals so we could get a railroad running.
“The reason I said that is based on the guy’s video of the cloud and things falling out of the cloud,” he explained on Wednesday. “It reminded me of disaster movies where you see nuclear winter. Everything falls out of the clouds – it reminded me of that.
“Yes, we did,” he said, doubling down on his claims. “We didn’t use nuclear weapons, but we atomized them with chemicals.”
A woman prays as she attends church services at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish as clean-up efforts continue following a freight train derailment in Norfolk Southern on Sunday
The freight train carrying hazardous chemicals was en route to Pennsylvania when it derailed
Residents in eastern Palestine, Ohio, have said they are experiencing symptoms after the Feb. 3 crash
Chemicals carried on Train 32N included vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial use; ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene.
The dangerous chemicals released in the East Palestine train derailment
A train carrying a variety of toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3.
Some of these chemicals have since been released into the air or soil due to local residents’ concerns about the long-term health effects.
Chemicals released in the derailment include:
Vinyl chloride – rail operator Norfolk Southern said 10 cars burned vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen. It’s a highly volatile colorless gas used to make polyvinyl chloride, a plastic used in plumbing, cables, bottles, and credit cards.
Symptoms of exposure to vinyl chloride include drowsiness, headache, and dizziness. Longer term effects can include cancer and liver damage.
Hydrogen Chloride – In an attempt to mitigate the effects of vinyl chloride, officials conducted a controlled explosion of the train cars, releasing hydrogen chloride.
The chemical is irritating and corrosive to any tissue it comes in contact with, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn.
Brief exposure can cause throat irritation, but exposure to higher levels can cause rapid breathing, constriction of the bronchioles, blue discoloration of the skin, fluid buildup in the lungs, and even death.
Phosgene – a chemical that was also released in the controlled explosion.
Like hydrogen chloride, phosgene irritates the skin, eyes and respiratory tract.
Common initial symptoms are mild irritation of the eyes and throat, with some coughing, choking, nausea, occasional vomiting, headache and chest tightness.
Phosgene poisoning can also cause respiratory and cardiovascular failure, low blood pressure, and fluid buildup in the lungs.
Ethylhexyl acrylate – a chemical carried on the train
It is a known carcinogen that can cause burning and irritation to the skin and eyes. Inhaling the substance can also irritate the nose and throat, causing shortness of breath and coughing.
Isobutylene was also transported on the train.
Inhaling isobutylene can cause dizziness and drowsiness
Ethylene glycol mobobutyl was another substance shipped to Pennsylvania.
It can cause irritation of the eyes, skin, nose and nose, as well as hematuria (or blood in the urine), nervous system depression, headache and vomiting.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that contact with ethylhexyl acrylate, a known carcinogen, can cause burns and irritation to the skin and eyes, while inhaling the substance can irritate the nose and throat and cause shortness of breath and coughing.
Inhalation of isobutylene can also cause dizziness and drowsiness, while exposure to ethylene glycol mobobutyl ether can cause eye, skin, nasal irritation and menace as well as hematuria (or blood in the urine), nervous system depression, headache and vomiting.
Vinyl chloride is also a known carcinogen that can cause drowsiness, headaches, and dizziness in the short term.
Long-term exposure to vinyl chloride can cause liver damage.
Caggiano said people in the rural town are already starting to experience some of these symptoms.
“People post pictures of red rashes and red eyes,” he said. “People with breathing problems left there and went somewhere else. Everything manifested there.
“And the only way you’re going to get rid of it is by cleaning everything thoroughly, because when you burn something that has organic chemicals in it, it leaves a film,” he said. “Like in your kitchen, if you’re using gas, you touch your wall and it’s going to feel rough because it’s going to deposit a film as it burns.
“So you might not find these chemicals in the air, but are we sampling enough to find them?” asked Caggiano. “Because you might find them in this film that’s everywhere.
“Do we look in the dirt where this stuff fell out? I haven’t heard anything about that.
“Now they’re finding it in the water,” he said, adding that the community expects rain, “so we could start finding it again.” It is washed out and restored.
“This is a farming community,” Caggiano continued, “these people will be growing stuff soon, and some of the chemicals may have spilled into the soil.”
He also questioned whether state and federal officials test for dioxins, also known as carcinogens, as they continue to reassure the public that the water is safe to drink
“I wonder why there is such a rush to open everything,” he said. “Everyone’s saying, ‘Everything’s fine, the water is drinkable and everything’s been tempered – and now we’re starting to hear, ‘Well, you might want to drink bottled water. We may have found that Norfolk Southern swept contaminated soil under the railroad tracks.”
“Everything I knew was going to show up and they said it wasn’t a problem has now become a problem,” he said, explaining, “These poor people in East Palestine are what we call being kept in the dark and BS fed.
“These are things that make you wonder, do they know what they’re doing, or are they hiding something from you? Are they trying to help the company mitigate large lawsuits?’
“It needs to be managed, someone needs to step in and say, ‘Enough is enough, this needs to be cleaned up,'” Caggiano concluded, noting that the company “just spent billions on share buybacks for investors.
“An old friend of mine said, ‘Money is the mother’s milk of politics,’ he remarked. ‘I’m sure they have a lot to spread.’
A representative from Norfolk Southern declined to comment.
An aerial photo shows workers trying to clean up the exploded train cars on Sunday
Shaw admitted in an interview that he doesn’t know where the contaminated soil is being transported to as clean-up efforts in eastern Palestine continued over the weekend
Experts said they did not have to detonate the five cars transporting the vinyl chloride
Norfolk Southern has touted its efforts to mitigate the damage from the derailment
A lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday also alleges that Norfolk Southern’s efforts to clean up and mitigate the derailment site have made the situation even more dangerous for local residents.
It is claimed that train 32N was carrying almost 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride when it overturned on February 3, a chemical that can mutate DNA and is not safe at any exposure level.
Then, when the train overturned, that huge amount of vinyl chloride — more than double the amount released by industrial emitters in the United States — all together in a year.
In 2021, the largest emitter of vinyl chloride in the United States released 6,834 pounds of vinyl chloride. The total of all emissions this year was 428,522.
“In other words, Norfolk Southern released more carcinogenic vinyl chloride into the environment over the course of a week than all industrial emitters combined over the course of a year,” the lawsuit says.
Also spilled were approximately 688,000 pounds of polyvinyl, 273,394 pounds of ethylhexyl acrylate, 273,394 pounds of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, and 206,000 pounds of butyl acrylate.
“Rather than properly contain and clean up the mess and be responsible for a costly cleanup, Norfolk Southern had another idea: ‘Set it on fire,'” the suit reads.
It is claimed that the company “probably understood that this volume was properly contained and removed [of] Vinyl chloride would be incredibly expensive and time consuming” and “knew or should have known that phosgene and other chemicals released when over 1 million pounds of vinyl chloride were ignited were extremely toxic”.
It also said: “Norfolk Southern knew or should have known that igniting a fire pit involving 1.1 million people would result in exposure to extremely toxic chemicals and injury to people in nearby communities.
“Despite the extreme toxicity of vinyl chloride, phosgene and other chemicals resulting from Norfolk Southern’s conduct, and the near certainty that innocent persons would be exposed and injured, Norfolk Southern still has a £1.1 million chemical fire pit set on fire.”
Plaintiffs in the class action are seeking medical supervision, injunctive and declaratory relief, punitive damages and damages related to injuries, emotional distress, depreciation of property and increased risk of future illness.’
A Norfolk Southern representative declined to comment on pending litigation.
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying dangerous goods, derailed in the city
The February 3 train derailment sparked a fire visible for miles
Residents in and around eastern Palestine have complained of persistent coughs and dead animals in the weeks since the derailment.
One couple even had to euthanize their indoor cat after realizing he was falling ill just hours after the train derailment.
Documentation from the Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialists and Emergency Clinic shows that vets there believe Leo’s condition “could be due to cases of vinyl chloride.”
“They said, well, it must have been vinyl chloride poisoning that made his heart condition worse because they believe he previously had a genetic heart condition that might not have been triggered without the vinyl chloride,” Andrea Belden told FOX 8.
Meanwhile, Taylor Holzer is asking the public for donations to help his pet foxes, who he had to abandon when he was forced to evacuate.
He said his rescued foxes are now clearly short of breath with swollen glands and the animals stuck outside have injured themselves from the cargo of the sirens and smells, with one of the foxes breaking its leg trying to escape its enclosure.
The fundraiser has already raised over $71,000 towards the foxes’ vet bills.
One family even turned to GoFundMe to help them raise enough money to move out of town after the derailment.
Alan Shaw assumed the position of CEO of Norfolk Southern in May 2022 and has served as President since December 2021
Shaw’s primary residence is this $4.2 million mansion in Atlanta, Georgia
He also owns several properties in Virginia Beach (like this one) as well as in Roanoke
Shaw also owns two boats, like the Bennington boat pictured here
In stark contrast, Shaw owns more than 20 properties in Georgia and Virginia, with his Atlanta primary home costing over $4.25 million.
Other homes he shares with his wife, Tiffany, in coveted locations like Virginia Beach and Roanoke range in price from $404,000 to $4.7 million.
He also owns two boats, according to public records, and was once in trouble with the law for allegedly not having a boat training certificate. He was found not guilty.
The millionaire only took over the helm of Norfolk Southern last year, but has served as the company’s president since December 1, 2021.
The Atlanta, Georgia resident previously served as Norfolk Southern’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer and vice president of intermodal operations.