(File Photo of Congressman Chris Deluzio)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) According to a release from Congressman Chris Deluzio’s office, Deluzio announced on Friday in Beaver County that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded $440,513 in federal funding to the University of Pittsburgh as part of a $10 million East Palestine, Ohio, Train Derailment Health Research Program to assess the long-term health effects of the 2023 disaster. The University of Pittsburgh is one of three universities leading this program that will oversee a study to assess outcomes of health related to the liver and both the liver and the thyroid axis. The February 3rd, 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio affected residents there and those in Beaver County because it happened on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. According to that same release from Congressman Chris Deluzio’s office,

• The $10 million research program is administered by NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and aims to: 

1. Conduct a health needs assessment by engaging organizations, networks, and researchers that are firmly connected to, actively working with, or embedded in communities near the train derailment disaster. 
2. Establish a scientifically rigorous and valid longitudinal study to assess health outcomes and risks associated with the environmental disaster. 
3. Provide training and educational materials as well as report-back of testing results and other findings to community members and local health providers. 
4. Support the development and implementation of a health tracking system, in conjunction with data cyberinfrastructure. This system would leverage health care records (with participant consent) and research data in collaboration with health care providers and others to identify health conditions associated with the derailment and understand factors that might guide health care decisions and public health interventions. 

• The award announced on Friday provides $10 million over five years to a consortium of three universities with a focus on community-engaged, high-impact research. The division of responsivities among the consortium of universities is as-follows:

1. The University of Kentucky will serve as the program lead and collaborate with program partners to develop the health needs assessment, longitudinal study, training, and a health tracking system. 
2. The University of Pittsburgh will assess health outcomes related to the liver and the liver/thyroid axis. Specifically, they will evaluate health outcomes related to the liver and the liver-thyroid axis using advanced, non-invasive technologies, including FibroScan, a device designed to measure liver fibrosis. 
3. Yale University will contribute to the program’s health needs assessment and the longitudinal study by conducting hydrological water quality modeling to identify geospatial patterns leading from the train derailment to potential groundwater and drinking water contamination.

• Together, these research teams will develop and execute a comprehensive strategy to address the health concerns and the needs of the residents impacted by the East Palestine derailment.
• Congressman Deluzio and his team will continue to monitor how these funds address the community’s needs in Beaver County and East Palestine. He will fight to make sure this congressionally authorized funding continues going to projects that make life better for Western Pennsylvanians.