The recent announcement that the National Institutes of Health agreed to a five-year, $10 million research initiative to examine the long-term health effects caused by the East Palestine train derailment disaster is great news.

The decision by some Republicans-elected officials to use that announcement to criticize the response to the Feb. 3, 2023, incident by the Democrat Joe Biden administration isn’t surprising, but is misleading.

You can certainly question how Biden’s administration handled the crisis and why it took him over a year to visit the community. But his administration didn’t ignore East Palestine.

Michael Regan, Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency director, was in East Palestine numerous times including three times in the four weeks after the derailment. Plenty of other Biden administration officials spent time in East Palestine.

More importantly, during Biden’s Feb. 16, 2024, visit to East Palestine, he announced six NIH grants, totaling $1.3 million, to study the short-term and long-term effects of the derailment.

Case Western Reserve University received a grant to engage community members and develop dialogue with East Palestine residents to better understand their experiences during and after the disaster. The study also collected blood and saliva to determine who the mixture of chemicals may have impacted health both short-term and long-term.

Texas A&M’s NIH grant is to study elevated volatile organic compounds in East Palestine.

The University of California San Diego is assessing the short-term health impacts of being exposed to a mixture of toxins.

The University of Pittsburgh received two grants. One is to collect soil, water and sediment samples to capture the extent of the contamination and impact on the local environment and the other is to collect environmental samples, biospecimens and health outcome data to better understand the interaction of psychosocial stress and vinyl chloride exposure on health and find ways to reduce the impacts.

The University of Kentucky is measuring health symptoms, stress and well-being of East Palestine residents.

The NIH has been in East Palestine a number of times since the derailment.

Claudia Thompson, chief of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences’ Population Health Branch, said: “The research being conducted by these six groups over the next two years will characterize exposures and collect health outcome data and will be carried out in close partnership with the community.”

The NIEHS is part of the NIH.

About 50 Norfolk Southern railroad cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed Feb. 3, 2023, in East Palestine. Five of the cars, carrying vinyl chloride, were purposely blown up three days later releasing the toxic chemical into the air.

The derailment and controlled explosion caused the evacuation of thousands of residents of East Palestine and nearby communities.

Several residents have concerns about health issues from the release of toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water. They have reported headaches as well as respiratory, skin and eye irritations.

Studies of the fallout of the East Palestine derailment have been ongoing for more than a year. Having additional ones is a great idea.

The new series of NIH studies will include research to understand the health impacts of exposures on short- and long-term health outcomes; public health tracking and surveillance of the community’s health conditions to support health-care decisions and preventive measures; and extensive and coordinated communications among various stakeholders and others to establish a comprehensive approach to address the health concerns of those in and around East Palestine, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In the announcement from the President Donald Trump administration to allocate the additional NIH funding, largely thanks to the efforts of Vice President J.D. Vance, a former senator from Ohio, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Westlake, chose to criticize Biden.

“Let’s be clear, Joe Biden abandoned East Palestine and left a community of working Americans behind when they needed him most,” Moreno said. “I’m beyond grateful that President Trump, Vice President Vance and Secretary (Robert F.) Kennedy (Jr.) are moving quickly to make the community whole again and help these Ohioans in need. This is a huge step towards finally getting justice for East Palestine.”

Make no mistake that Vance has been a champion for East Palestine. But even he had to distort what Biden did with the NIH grants.

Vance said: “As a senator, it was incredibly frustrating watching the Biden administration refuse to examine the potential dangerous health impacts on the people of East Palestine following the trail derailment. I’m proud that we finally have a new president that takes the concerns of everyday, working-class people seriously. This historic research initiative will finally result in answers that this community deserves.”

U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, whose district includes East Palestine, said: “Once again, this administration is showing the American people what true leadership looks like – putting Americans first. Under the Biden administration, which tried to sweep under the rug the catastrophic negligence and long-term health consequences of the East Palestine disaster, President Trump, Secretary Kennedy and (NIH) Director (Jay) Bhattacharya are stepping up and putting Ohioans’ health first.”

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.