Norfolk Southern Corporation, the railroad giant under fire following the fiery derailment of one of its freight trains in eastern Ohio, has backed out of a community town hall scheduled for Wednesday, citing a “growing physical threat” from “outside parties.”
The announcement came approximately two hours before the scheduled event, as residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and surrounding communities search for answers about the disaster’s impacts on human health and the environment. The Norfolk Southern train that derailed on Feb. 3 was carrying toxic and flammable materials, including hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, a common organic chemical used in the production of plastics that has been linked to several types of cancer.
