Probable Carcinogen Spews Over Toledo: 1,000 Evacuated, 30 Hospitalized, 50,000 Told to Stay Inside

A tank holding about 5,500 gallons of an industrial chemical called glycidyl methacrylate began spewing a white plume over north Toledo, Ohio, around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Nearly a day later it was still venting. Roughly 1,000 people were ordered out of their homes, and more than 50,000 were told to stay inside with the windows shut, the AP reported.

The tank sits at the MC Tank Transport terminal at 1266 Progress Ave., a site where products are stored before shipping out by rail or truck. What went wrong is so far explained in one sentence. The release came "from a 5,500-gallon tank because of an error that occurred when the material was being transferred," Ohio EPA spokesperson Bryant Somerville said in a statement, ABC News reported. Officials have not said what the error was.

Why nobody is plugging the leak

By Wednesday morning, the fire department's attempts to contain the release had failed. "The tank has been compromised and the chemical within the tank is completing a reaction," the U.S. EPA said. The city decided the safest move was to let that reaction finish on its own.

That sounds like giving up. It isn't. Glycidyl methacrylate is flammable and can polymerize, meaning it links up with itself in a reaction set off by heat or contamination, according to the international chemical safety card for the substance. Officials chose to let the tank vent rather than risk an intervention that could cause an explosion, WTOL reported. It's the logic of a grease fire: throwing water on it makes things worse, so you step back and let it burn down.

The waiting game ran longer than planned. Officials had flagged a 12-hour window of possible explosion risk that ended around 9:30 a.m. "While we anticipated the release would finish at the 12-hour mark, it is still ongoing," city spokesperson Rachel Hart told USA Today. At a 1 p.m. briefing, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said it could take another 6 to 16 hours, WTOL reported.

Drones checking the site every half hour showed steady improvement. "The situation is getting better and better. And by better, I mean the temperature has gone down significantly," Kapszukiewicz said, WTVG reported. By early afternoon so little gas was coming off that serial numbers on a tank manhole were clearly visible from the air.

What it is and what it does to people

Glycidyl methacrylate is used to make certain plastics, paints and coatings perform better, MC Tank said in a statement. Up close, it burns the eyes, nose, mouth and skin, and too much of it can bring on headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, the city says. The World Health Organization's cancer agency classifies it as "probably carcinogenic to humans," a rating based mostly on animal studies, IARC says.

About 30 people went to ProMedica hospitals with symptoms possibly tied to the leak, and most were treated and released by 2 p.m., USA Today reported. A sheriff's deputy was also checked out at a hospital; officials said his condition was not serious, WTVG reported. "It's mostly an irritant at this point," said Karim Baroudi, Lucas County's health commissioner.

The mayor said testing so far "hasn't revealed anything that would be harmful to human health." His bottom line: "This is something we should be concerned about. This is not something we should panic about," WTVG reported. One detail most coverage skipped: the air-quality apps on people's phones are no help here, because those sensors don't measure this chemical. The EPA is running its own monitors around the evacuation zone. The city says tap water is safe.

A region on pause

The leak shut down far more than one neighborhood. Stellantis evacuated the north plant of its Toledo Assembly Complex, where Jeep builds the Wrangler and Gladiator, and canceled Wednesday's first shift, the Detroit Free Press reported. The afternoon shift was canceled too, along with shifts at Kuka, Mobis, Mayco and Dana, WTVG reported. Nearby rail lines were shut down.

Toledo Public Schools and Washington Local Schools canceled classes. The shelter zone crossed the state line, closing Bedford and Mason schools in Michigan's Monroe County, the Monroe News reported. The Raintree Village mobile home park was emptied, and evacuees waited in TARTA buses parked at a Meijer lot.

The first night was confusing, too. City officials first named the wrong company, Sterling Pipe & Tube, before saying the leak came from MC Tank, WTVG noted. The mayor first called it an explosion; by afternoon the city was calling it a leak, saying the first 911 caller reported no blast, WTOL reported.

Who answers for it

MC Tank Transport is a subsidiary of The Kenan Advantage Group, a tank-truck carrier based in North Canton, Ohio. "We understand the serious disruption this incident has caused to nearby residents and businesses, particularly those required to evacuate their homes," the company said, adding it is working with the Red Cross on lodging for displaced residents, its statement says. Company executives were traveling to Toledo from Arkansas, the mayor said.

For Toledo, it is the second industrial emergency in two months. In August, explosions at the Brent Industries recycling plant killed two workers, the AP reported. Ohioans also remember East Palestine, where a 2023 train derailment ended with a deliberate burn of toxic vinyl chloride. This time the cause is already on the record as human error. The next questions are what the error was and who made it.

The evacuation and shelter orders were still in place Wednesday afternoon. Residents can check their address against the zones on the city's emergency page.