On the night of Feb. 3, about 50 cars of a freight train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway derailed in a fiery crash on the outskirts of East Palestine, a tiny village in northeastern Ohio, nestled near the state line with Pennsylvania. Ten of the derailed cars were transporting hazardous materials, five of which contained vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses.
Since then, there have been many reports about the evacuation of nearby residents, the cleaning and environmental testing that are still underway and political coverage of governmental response and resources dedicated to the disaster.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board recently issued a series of tweets asking people to beware of misinformation as well as .