Project Summary On February 3rd, 2023, a train carrying several chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, leading to a fast-moving contamination event that spread released chemicals and their combustion by-products through the surrounding region. The impacted communities include the immediate evacuation areas in a one- mile by two-mile area surrounding East Palestine, the other communities in Columbiana and Beaver Counties, and potentially some downstream communities along the Ohio River. Thus, there is an urgent need to mobilize environmental monitoring for capturing the extent of contamination in soil, water, and sediment which serve as the accumulative sinks of the contaminants, as well as document the likely severe and ongoing impacts on the local environment of these regions and its highly interconnected waterways. Overall, this project aims to determine the post-accident exposome profiles in the impacted communities surrounding East Palestine due to the released or generated contaminants caused by this human-made disaster. The overall objective of this proposal is to determine the post-accident chemical exposome profiles in the impacted communities by both targeted and non-targeted approaches, thus further conducting fate and transportation, environmental exposures, and human health risk assessment modeling. Specifically, the following two aims will be performed to determine the exposome profiles and evaluate the health risks of the chemicals in these exposome profiles. Aim 1 involves collecting 75 evenly distributed soil, water, and sediment samples in the impacted communities and conducting rigorous targeted and non-targeted analyses on persistent combustion byproducts including dioxins, furans, chlorinated furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls. Aim 2 involves performing a model-based comprehensive evaluation of the long-term environmental fate, human exposure levels, and corresponding health risks of all the quantified contaminants in the exposome profile. A comprehensive model named ”PROduction-To- Exposure“ will be used to evaluate the accidental release magnitudes of chemicals or generated byproducts during this derailment accident. This will be a time-sensitive project since the sampling of environmental matrices needs to begin as soon as possible by performing both immediate analysis and sample banking to create a record of evolving regional contamination. This project will provide critically needed data on a broad suite of contaminants that can currently impact the human health surrounding East Palestine as well as Columbiana and Beaver Counties. Disseminating the results as soon as possible can benefit the communities, municipalities, and regulators to ensure that key stakeholders are empowered to make informed decisions about exposure interventions and remediation.

Project Narrative On February 3rd, 2023, a train derailment caused a fast-moving contamination event that spread chemicals and their combustion by-products through the surrounding region, impacting multiple communities including the immediate evacuation areas in a one-mile by two-mile area surrounding East Palestine, OH, as well as other communities in Columbiana and Beaver Counties. This project aims to determine the post- accident exposome profiles in the impacted communities by collecting soil, water, and sediment samples and conducting both targeted and non-targeted analyses on the persistent combustion byproducts, as well as performing a model-based comprehensive evaluation of long-term environmental fate, human exposure levels, and corresponding health risks of all the quantified contaminants in the exposome profile. The project is time- sensitive due to its urgent need for sample collections, and the results will provide critically needed data on a broad suite of contaminants that can currently impact human health in the affected regions, empowering key stakeholders to make informed decisions about exposure interventions and remediation.