(Lisbon) Morning Journal / Stephanie Elverd Tom Helbeck, left, pastor of The First Church of Christ, presents Darlington’s Tom and Lynn Young and East Palestine’s Chris Albright with state-of-art air purification units Monday at the church. Rick Vickroy, right, regional director of Germ Solutions USA, was also on hand. Germ Solutions USA and the church have partnered to form HelpEastPalestineOhio.org.

EAST PALESTINE — It’s been eight months since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine and the cost of the rail disaster continues to mount.

At the last tally, the derailment was expected to cost north of $800 million, but Bob Helbeck, pastor of the First Church of Christ, said the true cost of the disaster cannot be measured. While those impacted have suffered monetary losses, peace of mind has also been lost, as residents continue to suffer health symptoms and worry about the quality of air in their homes.

Helbeck is helping to lessen those worries and lighten the burden through HelpEastPalestineOhio.org — a partnership between the church, which has served the community as a hub for disaster relief and Germ Solutions USA, a provider of air purification systems headquartered in Harmony, Pa. — by helping East Palestine and the surrounding communities quite literally breathe a little easier by providing homes and businesses with state-of-the-art air purifiers. Darlington’s Tom and Lynn Young and East Palestine’s Chris and Jessica Albright became the first recipients on a waiting list of more than 500 to receive a donated Beyond Guardian Air purification unit on Monday.

“It makes us feel a little better,” Tom Young said. “It gives it some peace of mind and that’s more than we’ve received from anybody else since this whole thing started. Darlington gets overlooked, but the cloud went right over our homes. It isn’t just East Palestine that’s suffering.”

He does not use the term”suffering” in the figurative sense. He, his wife and teen children live about three miles from the derailment site, just over the state border. The family continues to get unexplained nosebleeds, eye and skin irritation and other symptoms they insist are from chemical exposure from the plume. Young fears their home may be contaminated.

Chris Albright has experienced ailments that he, too, maintains are linked to the derailment and chemical release. Like the Youngs, Albright’s family had persistent nosebleeds and other more serious symptoms.

“Before the derailment, I never experienced heart problems and now I am having cardiac issues,” Albright said. “The doctors can’t say it’s related to the derailment and they can’t say it’s not. All I know is before Feb. 3 I never had any problems and now I do.”

The Albright family didn’t immediately leave the village following the derailment, but when their health deteriorated, they made the decision to take their young daughters and leave the home. The family spent months in a hotel. Chris said it nearly left them bankrupt. He still worries, but said he will feel more at ease when the air purifier is up and running.

The donated units utilize sophisticated photocatalytic oxidation to specifically target and eliminate bio-contaminants in the air. It is the same unit used by the Cleveland Clinic in its operating rooms. Vickroy called the technology “NASA technology.”

The process was developed by the NASA Research Partnership Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the help of the Space Product Development Program at Marshall Space Flight Center. When ultraviolet light strikes titanium dioxide, it frees electrons that turn oxygen and moisture into highly reactive hydroxyl radicals. These charged particles then oxidize air contaminants such as volatile organic compounds, turning them into carbon dioxide and water. In other words, it “cleans the air.”

Germ Solutions USA has previously provided East Palestine Schools with 160 air and surface purifiers and another 500 to residents and businesses in and around East Palestine. Helbeck has been spearheading an effort to get as many units as he can to East Palestine and the surrounding areas.

“People here are mistrustful, right now,” he said. “They don’t trust what they are being told and are anxious about their health. We want to do anything we can to make people feel safe in their homes by giving them clean air.”

HelpEastPalestine.org has been collecting donations for the purification units through its website. One hundred percent of all funds collected will directly go to providing businesses and residents with a portable unit which can service up to 2,500 square feet. For every unit given through donations, a second unit will be given by the company at no cost.

selverd@mojonews.com