I was talking with a colleague about an article from a few weeks ago. A person tested positive for a biomarker associated with vinyl chloride (note the word associated). This person lives in East Palestine, OH, and immediately concluded that they are still being exposed to vinyl chloride from the train derailment.

Okay -- full stop. I feel bad for this individual and any other folks in East Palestine who are testing positive for biomarkers associated with vinyl chloride. I don't even want to begin to imagine what they are going through. And I don't even want to begin to imagine how this is impacting the children in that area. But unfortunately, it's not as simple to say that just because you have a biomarker associated with vinyl chloride that you are still being exposed to elevated levels of vinyl chloride due to the train derailment this many months out, given the air sampling data from EPA.

In this episode I discuss what biomarkers are, and I'll go over, briefly, how I look at this as a toxicology investigator trying to piece together the causal relationships between chemicals, biomarkers, and effects.

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