BEAST PALESTINE — As residents in East Palestine continue to grapple with the uncertainty of future health implications from the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical release, grants provided by the National Institute of Health to study those implications face an uncertain future as well.

In February, the Trump administration attempted to implement a new policy to cap indirect costs for NIH research grants at 15 percent, which would cut billions of dollars in research funding. The executive order also cancels grants that no longer meet agency priorities. A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the administration from carrying out those cuts but it’s still unclear what research will be impacted if the cuts are resumed.

The announcement came nearly a year to the day that former President Joe Biden during a trip to East Palestine announced the award of six NIH “grants to some of America’s best research institutions to study the short- and long-term impacts of what happened here.”

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences made the awards through its Time-Sensitive Research Grants Program to conduct research and community engagement activities in East Palestine.

According to the NIEHS, none of the contracts given out for health monitoring related to the East Palestine derailment have been impacted or interrupted so far by Trump’s order.

While Trump’s executive order is meant to cancel grants related to LGBTQ and diversity, equity and inclusion, a Department of Government Efficiency directive will see the NIH reduce its workforce by more than 3,000 employees. Meanwhile, the 15 percent cap on indirect costs to reimburse other expenses supporting the work such as electricity, maintenance and janitorial staff as well as safety and ethics oversight could have a direct result on all research studies — including ones to analyze the impact of the derailment on East Palestine and surrounding communities. Also, given the vague wording, it is unclear if any of the six East Palestine grants would no longer align with agency priorities.

Texas A&M received a NIH grant to continue to study elevated VOC levels, particularly acrolein, in East Palestine following the derailment.

Case Western Reserve University was awarded a NIH grant to engage community members and develop dialogue with East Palestine residents to better understand their experiences and concerns during and after the disaster. That study also collected blood and saliva samples to determine how the mixtures of chemicals may have impacted health both short- and long-term.

The University of California, San Diego, was awarded a grant to assess the short-term health impact of being exposed to a mixture of toxins.

The University of Pittsburgh was awarded two grants for two derailment health studies — one to collect soil, water, and sediment samples to capture the extent of the contamination and impact on the local environment and one to collect environmental samples, biospecimens and health outcome data to better understand the interaction of psychosocial stress and vinyl chloride exposure on health and to find ways to reduce the immediate and long-term impacts of exposure.

University of Kentucky and Dr. Erin Haynes, who also had already been tracking the potential health impacts of the rail disaster, accounts for the sixth grant awarded to continue to measure health symptoms, stress and well-being of East Palestine residents. Haynes was one of the first researchers in East Palestine. Last year, her team collected biological samples, tested indoor air and gave residents wristbands to wear that can pick up toxicity in the environment.

Hayes and the university received a grant to continue to measure health symptoms, stress and well-being of East Palestine residents through surveys, blood work and other bio sampling as well as wristbands designed to detect toxins in the air.

Since the derailment, the NIH has continuously engaged the impacted communities, including attending a community informational session on public health as well as collaborating with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on a two-day virtual workshop to explore potential health research and surveillance priorities arising from the derailment and hear from residents who have been impacted. The NIH held a rapid workshop in November 2023 to better understand the health impact of the rail disaster. Most recently, NIH used the Ohio-Pennsylvania University Research Consortium — that featured a group of about two dozen researchers from seven universities, members of the East Palestine health community and responding agencies — as an outreach for community participation in the ongoing studies funded by the grants.