Toledo residents share concerns about long-term health impacts from chemical leak
Fumes from the chemical leak in Toledo have died down significantly since Wednesday.
The shelter-in-place order has been lifted, and the evacuation zone has been reduced to a quarter-mile radius around the hazmat site on Thursday morning.
City of Toledo health officials say exposure risks from the chemical leak are at their lowest points since the incident happened Tuesday night. Questions about future health impacts are still weighing on those who live here.
"It was almost like a battery acid smell. It was almost rancid, like a nasty plastic," said Toledo resident Zach Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick lives just outside where the three-mile shelter-in-place zone used to be, but that didn't stop him from feeling symptoms, he says, that came from chemical fumes.
"We were deep in it by 4 in the morning [Wednesday]. My throat is still irritated right now. My wife, she's had a headache and migraines since about 2 that morning when it started," he said.
Fitzpatrick says his biggest concern is how this incident will impact his family's health down the line.
"The level in concentration that we just experienced, they don't have any controlled setting that has ever happened," he said.
The City of Toledo reported 57 hospitalizations due to the incident, seven of which are still in treatment. They say none were in serious condition.
"We understand the uneasiness and frustration that a lot of residents have," said Toledo Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Santiago.
The EPA says they're collecting air samples around the evacuation zone to determine how much of the chemical is still in the air.
"Unfortunately, this is something that takes time in monitoring changing conditions, and we want to make sure we do that the right way so when we do allow citizens to come back into that evacuation area, there's no safety concern for them," Santiago said.
Santiago says his crews didn't notice any smoke or fumes still coming from the tank early Thursday afternoon; however, the quarter-mile evacuation zone was still in effect when he told CBS News Detroit that information, as they continue to monitor conditions around the site.
