Hazardous materials

People returning to what remains of the beachside town of Lahaina, Hawaii, and other Maui communities after one of the nation’s deadliest wildfire disasters face more dangers, beyond the 2,700 buildings destroyed or damaged and dozens of lives lost. The fires also left lingering health risks for humans and wildlife. When fires spread through communities, as we’ve seen more often in recent years, they burn structures that contain treated wood, plastics, paints and hazardous household wastes. They can burn vehicles and melt plastic water pipes. All of these items release toxic gases and particles. Many airborne pollutants fall to the ground, and when debris or dust is stirred up, hazardous particles can enter the air, where people can easily breathe them in. Chemicals can also contaminate water supplies. On Aug. 11, 2023, Maui County issued an “unsafe water” alert for areas of Lahaina and Upper Kula that were affected by wildfires, warning residents to u...

Less than two weeks after train cars filled with hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio and caught fire, a truck carrying nitric acid crashed on a major highway outside Tucson, Arizona, killing the driver and releasing toxic chemicals into the air. The Arizona hazmat disaster shut down Interstate 10, a major cross-country highway, and forced evacuations in surrounding neighborhoods. But the highway crash didn’t draw national attention the way the train derailment did, or trigger a flood of calls for more trucking regulation like the U.S. is seeing for train regulation. Truck crashes tend to be local and less dramatic than a pile of derailed train cars on fire, even if they’re deadlier. In fact, federal data shows that rail has had far fewer incidents, deaths and damage when moving hazardous materials in the U.S. than trucks. After the train derailment and fire in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023, the U.S. EPA tested ove...