Residents near Ohio derailment diagnosed with bronchitis due to chemicals

People near the Ohio site where a train derailed are being diagnosed with bronchitis and other issues that doctors and nurses say are linked to chemical exposure.

Residents and workers near the site where a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed this month have been diagnosed with bronchitis and other conditions that doctors and nurses suspect are linked to chemical exposure.

Melissa Blake, who lives within a mile of the crash site in East Palestine, Ohio, said she started coughing up gray mucus and was struggling to breathe on Feb. 5, two days after the Norfolk Southern train derailed. That day she evacuated her home and also went to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with “acute bronchitis due to chemical fumes,” according to medical records reviewed by NBC News.

“They gave me a breathing machine. They put me on oxygen. They gave me three types of steroids,” Blake said. She has yet to move back home since being discharged nearly three weeks ago.

A family from Pennsylvania inspects the wreckage of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.Matthew Hatcher / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAt CeramFab, a manufacturing company adjacent to the derailment site, five of its 10 workers were too sick to work as of Tuesday, according to general manager Howard Yang.

Yang said the company suspended operations for about a week because of the derailment and subsequent release of vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic chemical onboard the train that was intentionally burned to avoid the risk of an explosion. Yang's employees resumed work on Feb. 13, he said, but after about two days, they “started dropping like flies.”