Long, Michael AScott, Madison2025-01-132025-01-132024-07https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14446/345750On February 3rd of 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio, exposing residents to both smoke from the ensuing fires and the toxic chemicals being transported via railcar. Due to its small-town qualities and the prevalence of extended family histories within the town, East Palestine has become a fascinating case study of what happens when environmental dangers become omnipresent in a space to which people are deeply attached. To examine this, 24 interviews were conducted with residents of East Palestine and the nearby township of Darlington Pennsylvania, first responders, and activists involved in the community. To guide those conversations and analyze interview data, theories such as place and space, critical environmental justice, recreancy, and contested illness were utilized to provide a frame through which we look at the personal experiences of a variety of individuals who lived through the derailment, evacuation, and subsequent controlled burn. Using both inductive and deductive approaches, transcripts were coded into theoretical themes, and connections between those chosen theories were uncovered. Results demonstrate a myriad of both physical and mental health impacts, a community left divided, and the deterioration of trust in authority among community members who feel they have been left behind. The findings of these interviews not only draw a bleak picture of human experiences in the wake of industrial disaster, but also create a compelling argument for further exploration of this case and others with regards to how perpetrators are held responsible and how their actions deepen impacts felt by the communities they interact with in the long-term.application/pdfCopyright is held by the author who has granted the Oklahoma State University Library the non-exclusive right to share this material in its institutional repository. Contact Digital Library Services at lib-dls@okstate.edu or 405-744-9161 for the permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of this material.ThesisEast Palestineenvironmental justiceenvironmental sociologyplace and space