Will China lose its taste for Ohio soybeans, milk over toxic train fears?

Name: Chemical inferno sparked by train derailment in the US forces Ohio residents to evacuate
Uploaded: 2023-02-17T08:00:11.000Z
Duration: 1 min 59 s
Description: Chemical inferno sparked by train derailment in the US forces Ohio residents to evacuate

Chinese consumers are turning to social media to find out if agricultural imports from the US state remain safe

One scientist has said the decision to treat spill with controlled burn that released harmful dioxins was ‘a point of no return’

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Billows of smoke, lit orange by the flames from the derailed train, over a village in Ohio on February 3. Photo: AP

Zhang Tongin Beijing

Published: 4:00pm, 17 Feb 2023

Concerns about Ohio’s toxic chemical spill and fire after a train derailment have spread to one of the US agricultural state’s biggest customers – China.

Interest in the burning chemicals – including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate and ethyl hexyl acrylate – released into the atmosphere after a train derailment in the Midwestern state, started percolating on Chinese social media about 10 days after the incident.

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Chemical inferno sparked by train derailment in the US forces Ohio residents to evacuate

Scientists shared their worries about the effects on soybeans, as well as milk and other consumer products imported from Ohio, while other experts have warned the incident could lead to uncertainty in China-US trade.

Ohio officials said 3,500 fish were killed in the 12km (7.5 miles) affected area. Some news outlets are reporting that animals are falling sick and dying near the site.

Of greatest concern is that three days after the train derailed and caught fire on February 3, the Norfolk Southern railway company treated the spill with a controlled burn.

The incineration “pushed the problem to a point of no return”, according to Sun Yafei, a member of China’s Science Communication Bureau and a PhD chemist with Tsinghua University.