Report kept from residents now revealed, shows toxic levels in East Palestine

( NewsNation ) — Shortly after the 2023 train derailment and burning of vinyl chloride in East Palestine, Ohio, renowned exposure-warnings expert and industrial hygienist Stephen Petty tested the soil and water for residents.

Petty had been hired by class-action attorneys as their testing expert.

When the attorneys negotiated a $600 million settlement with Norfolk Southern , they did not release Petty's results — even to their own clients.

Nexstar's NewsNation has obtained those results and interviewed Petty.

Never-released report shows contamination, Petty says

Petty told NewsNation there are carcinogens in the soil in East Palestine and that they are "above screening levels, which means you can't walk away from it."

Petty said his testing data, and other data he analyzed, show dioxins and PAHs ( polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ), some of the most carcinogenic compounds on the planet, at elevated levels.

The levels are above cancer-screening levels set by the EPA , which requires further testing and analysis.

"Somewhere between 50% and 70% of the data points, whether they be for dioxins or PAHs, exceeded screening levels" for cancer, Petty said.

"You have to do something. You have to do further analysis to see what needs to be done from a remediation standpoint. And you also have to do further analysis to determine what it means for people in that environment," Petty said. "There is a problem there."

Independent testing expert Scott Smith also came to test on his own. He said he found elevated levels of dioxin, too. Smith and Petty are both whistleblowers represented by the Government Accountability Project.

"It's astounding in that it was suppressed," he said. "Forty-nine percent of the testing exceeds the EPA cancer screening level. Seventy percent of Stephen Petty's data and analysis shows polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons above the EPA cancer screening level."

"It lines up exactly with my data," he said.

Their own lawyers kept the data from them, residents say

Residents said the story they got from the attorneys in the class-action lawsuit was very different.

"Petty's test results were always really secret," East Palestine resident Beth Kosar said. "They said it would hurt the case."

"They told me that in my home, basically, that the numbers didn't support the outcome of the $600 million," resident Linda Murphy said. "The numbers weren't bad enough. And if they revealed them to the court, the $600 million may not even go through because the contamination levels were not bad enough. There would be no long-term health effects risks."

Murphy shared an audio recording she said was from a meeting with the lawyers. In the recording, the speakers can be heard saying, "The data is nowhere near as bad as we thought it was going to be when this first happened."

The speaker also said, "It's almost unprovably bad, specifically for medical monitoring, showing that people have been exposed at a certain level so as to require 10, 20 years of diagnostic testing. Virtually unprovable for any long-term chronic future illness like cancer."

They also said, "The chemicals did not persist long enough at quantities that will expose people over the necessary period of time to produce long-term health effects that are associated directly to this exposure."

Austin Druckenbrod, another East Palestine resident, said he asked the lawyers directly about the tests: "I asked him when I was concerned about the testing they had, that it may not have been the truth. And he said, 'They're hacks. And Scott Smith doesn't know what he's talking about. And neither does Stephen Petty,' And he said, 'Don't believe them.'"

NewsNation has reviewed text messages that appear to back up what Druckenbrod told us.

Though the attorneys didn't share Petty's results with residents, they did enlist a toxicologist to film a video that played for the residents.

The video was filmed by Dr. Arch "Chip" Carson, M.D., PhD., who is listed on the video as principal of Environmental Medicine Consultants. He is associated with multiple universities, including Ohio State University , the University of Cincinnati and the University of Texas School of Public Health.

In one part of the video, Dr. Carson said, "The levels that people were exposed to in the community were so small that we don't expect any kinds of cancers or health effects to have resulted from those. There will not be any long-term health impact of chemical exposure from the derailment to community members of East Palestine."

Petty told NewsNation, "The argument that there is nothing to see here is factually false. Multiple people saying there's nothing to see here … are just flat out lying or are wrong."

Mindy Bish is an attorney now representing East Palestine residents who are trying to rescind their participation in the settlement.

"Arch Carson told everyone that there was, that he would expect no cancers as a result of this exposure. No cancers. And there are cancers developing almost every week in East Palestine and someone dying of cancer almost every month," Bish told NewsNation.

"These attorneys told them that the Stephen Petty information would not support the claims. And that is not true," Bish said. "My first impressions when I saw Stephen Petty's results was this is fraudulent, this is concealment, this is manipulation."

Neither Carson nor the attorneys in the class-action settlement have responded to requests for comment from NewsNation.

Nearly 90 residents are seeking to rescind their participation in the settlement.

In part, their motion alleged "Substantial evidence of fraud and misrepresentation by class counsel, who concealed critical expert findings about health risks while inducing class members to sign personal injury releases in exchange for inadequate personal injury payments."

In April, a judge denied their effort to reopen the settlement. They have filed an appeal alleging that class counsel's own expert, Petty, held opinions materially adverse to the settlement that were not disclosed before opt-in.

"I believe I was manipulated," Druckenbord said. "I believe there was fraud. And I have the future, and my future is going to rely on proving the bad actors were wrong."