Every day, trains laden with potentially harmful materials, like the one that derailed in East Palestine this month, rumble through American towns and cities. Often, residents are unaware of the danger.

每天，满载潜在有害物质的火车，比如本月在东巴勒斯坦出轨的那辆，轰隆隆地穿过美国城镇。通常情况下，居民们都没意识到有这种危险。

Environmental experts warn that without stricter regulation from Congress and increased transparency requirements for dangerous materials passing through residential areas, many more towns and cities will be left in the dark and unprepared, as East Palestine was before a 3 February derailment unleashed a toxic onslaught on the town.

环境专家警告说，如果国会没有更严格的监管，对危险物质通过居民区的透明度没有更高的要求，更多的城镇将被置于黑暗和毫无准备的境地，就像东巴勒斯坦在2月3日的脱轨事件中对该镇释放出的有毒物质。
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"Millions of people deal with it every single day, they probably just don't know it," says David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment.

"宾夕法尼亚州环境组织（PennEnvironment）的执行董事大卫-马苏尔（David Masur）说："数以百万计的人每天都在处理这个问题，他们可能只是不知道。

"The potential for a catastrophic train derailment and fire or explosions has been high, it's certainly been something experts have warned about for many, many years".

"发生灾难性的火车脱轨和火灾或爆炸的可能性一直很高，这当然是专家们很多很多年来一直警告的事情"。

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which regulates the industry, does not provide lists of the rail lines that hazardous materials travel, according to an agency spokesperson.

根据该机构发言人的说法，监管该行业的联邦铁路管理局( FRA )没有提供危险材料运输的铁路线清单。

Railroad companies are loathe to disclose much information about hazardous cargo and routes the material travels, citing security concerns. Local governments can request information from the railroads annually for the purpose of planning their emergency response.

铁路公司以安全问题为由，不愿意透露很多关于危险货物和材料运输路线的信息。地方政府可以每年向铁路公司索取信息，以规划其应急反应。

One of the people left in the dark was Ohio's own governor.

其中一个被蒙在鼓里的人是俄亥俄州的州长。

Norfolk Southern had not notified officials that vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials would be winding its way along the tracks that ran through East Palestine the day of the disaster, said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

俄亥俄州州长Mike DeWine说，诺福克南方公司没有通知政府部门，在灾难发生的当天，会有携带氯乙烯和其他有害物质的火车将沿着穿过东巴勒斯坦的轨道蜿蜒而行。

"This train apparently was not considered a high-hazardous material train, therefore the railroad was not required to notify anyone here in Ohio about what was in the rail cars coming through our state," Mr DeWine said at a 14 February press conference.

DeWine先生在2月14日的新闻发布会上说:“这列火车显然没有被认为是高危险物质列车，因为铁路部门没有被要求通知俄亥俄州的任何人关于经过我们州的火车车厢里有什么。”

"If this is true … this is absurd, we need to look at this. Congress needs to take a look at how these things are handled."

"如果这是真的......这很荒唐，我们需要看看这个。国会需要看一下这些事情是如何处理的。

At a tense town hall on 15 February, East Palestine's residents expressed frustration at the lack of knowledge about the risk that passed through their backyards each day."

2月15日，在气氛紧张的市政厅，东巴勒斯坦的居民对每天经过他们后院的风险缺乏了解表示沮丧。

"I wouldn't know what to say if anything could have prevented this, because there's never no information about trains that are going through this town," said Wes Durkis, a local maintenance worker. "My whole life, they just come and go, and we don't know."

当地维修工Wes Durkis说："如果有什么能阻止这一切，我不知道该说什么，因为从来没有关于火车经过这个城镇的信息。在我的一生中，他们来了又走，我们不知道。"


Freight trains are used to carry materials both innocuous and hazardous over long distances.

货运列车被用来长途运输无害和危险的材料。

An expansive network of Class-1 railroads, which are operated by the major railroad freight companies and one passenger company, wind their way through America's coasts, heartlands and metropolises each day, racking up millions upon millions of miles every year.

由主要铁路货运公司和一家客运公司经营的一级铁路的广阔网络，每天都在美国的海岸、中心地带和大都市中蜿蜒前行，每年的里程达数百万英里。

Many of them carry potentially flammable or toxic substances, like crude oil or petrochemicals.

其中许多含有潜在的易燃或有毒物质，如原油或石化产品。

About a thousand train derailments occur in the US each year, according to the FRA. Leaks from trains carrying hazardous materials happen rarely. Only nine such incidents occurred in 2022, according to FRA data. The year with the highest number of hazardous material releases, 2020, only saw 20 such incidents.

根据联邦铁路局的数据，美国每年大约发生一千起火车脱轨事件。运送危险材料的火车发生泄漏的情况很少。根据FRA的数据，2022年只发生了9起此类事件。危险材料泄漏数量最多的一年，即2020年，只发生了20起此类事件。

But accidents do happen, and when they occur, they can devastate a community.

但事故确实会发生，一旦发生，就会摧毁一个社区。

In 2005, a Norfolk Southern train carrying pressurized chlorine gas crashed in Graniteville, South Carolina, sending a toxic plume over the town. Nine people were killed in the crash and thousands had to evacuate.

2005年，一辆载有加压氯气的诺福克南方公司的火车在南卡罗来纳州的格拉尼特维尔撞毁，在该镇上空产生了有毒烟雾。9人在这次事故中丧生，数千人不得不疏散。

A year later, the town's residents told The Washington Post they still suffered consequences from the fallout.

一年后，该镇的居民告诉《华盛顿邮报》，他们仍然受到了此次事故的影响。

In 2012, a train carrying vinyl chloride - the same chemical primarily involved in the East Palestine incident - derailed in Paulsboro, New Jersey. Cars containing the substance derailed off a bridge and released 23,000 gallons of the chemical.

2012年，一列运载氯乙烯--跟涉及东巴勒斯坦事件的同一化学品--的火车在新泽西州的保罗斯博罗出轨。装有该物质的车厢从一座桥上脱轨，并释放出23,000加仑的化学品。

In 2015, a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in the state of West Virginia, destroying a house and contaminating the local drinking water.

2015年，一列运载原油的火车在西弗吉尼亚州脱轨并爆炸，摧毁了一栋房子并污染了当地的饮用水。

North American rail tragedies were not limited to the US. In 2013, a train carrying oil derailed and exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people and forcing 2,000 residents to evacuate.

北美的铁路悲剧并不局限于美国。2013年，一列运载石油的火车在加拿大魁北克省Lac-Megantic镇出轨并爆炸，造成47人死亡，2000名居民被迫疏散。


In many circumstances, local emergency responders were not prepared to deal with a chemical spill or explosion due to a lack of knowledge about the substances passing through their communities, a ProPublica investigation into railroads used to transport oil found. Emergency managers throughout the US told the investigative outlet that they did not receive notifications about dangerous materials traveling by rail.

ProPublica对用于运输石油的铁路进行调查后发现，在许多情况下，由于缺乏对经过其社区的物质的了解，当地应急人员没有做好应对化学品泄漏或爆炸的准备。美国各地的应急管理人员告诉该调查机构，他们没有收到关于通过铁路运输的危险物质的通知。

Given that these freight lines run through major US cities, as well as small towns like East Palestine, millions of Americans are potentially at risk, environmental experts said.

环境专家说，考虑到这些货运线路贯穿美国主要城市，以及像东巴勒斯坦这样的小城镇，数百万美国人可能面临风险。

In Pennsylvania alone, 3.9 million people lived within the evacuation zone of trains carrying crude oil, a study conducted by PennEnvironment found in 2015. That included hundreds of thousands of people in the Philadelphia metro region.

PennEnvironment在2015年进行的一项研究发现，仅在宾夕法尼亚州，就有390万人生活在运载原油的火车的疏散区。这包括费城市区的数十万人。

Any changes to railroad regulations would require the federal government to act; states and cities do not have much power to regulate the rail industry because it operates across state lines.

对铁路法规的任何修改都需要联邦政府采取行动；各州和城市没有太多的权力来监管铁路行业，因为它是跨州经营。

After the accident, East Palestine's residents are hyper-aware of the trains that have resumed passage through their town. And they know just as little about what the carriages carry as they did before the disaster, they say.

事故发生后，东巴勒斯坦的居民对恢复通过他们镇的火车有了高度警觉。他们说，他们对这些车厢所载货物的了解与灾难发生前一样少。

"The day they lifted the evacuation, there were trains going through in the background carrying the same thing," said Lisa Hamner, a frustrated East Palestine resident whose business sits just meters from the derailment site.

"他们撤离的那天，有火车携带同样的东西穿过城镇，" Lisa Hamner说，他是一个沮丧的东巴勒斯坦居民，他的生意离脱轨地点只有几米远。

"What's the next town going to be? It's sad."

"下一个城镇会是怎样?这是悲哀的。”

原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处