The latest class action lawsuit filed following the Norfolk Southern derailment, along with subsequent fire and chemical spill in East Palestine contains perhaps the most scathing accusations compared to the five, previously filed legal complaints, claiming cleanup efforts made the situation worse.

The complaint, filed on Wednesday in U.S. District court by Morgan & Morgan which bills itself as America’s largest injury firm, alleges that the railroad dumped more than 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride into the environment during the incident.

The lawsuit claims the amount of that emission of the toxic chemical was more than two times the total amount of vinyl chloride released by all U.S. industries annually.

The suit alleges that burning vinyl chloride creates phosgene gas, a chemical warfare agent used in World War One that has been banned by the Geneva Convention.

“I’m not sure Norfolk Southern could have come up with a worse plan to address this disaster,” said attorney John Morgan. “Residents exposed to vinyl chloride may already be undergoing DNA mutations that could linger for years or even decades before manifesting as terrible and deadly cancers. The lawsuit alleges that Norfolk Southern made it worse by essentially blasting the town with chemicals as they focused on restoring train service and protecting their shareholders.”

Authorities say they undertook what they called the “controlled release” of unstable chemicals to prevent a possible explosion at the derailment scene.

Listed as plaintiffs in the legal action is Columbiana County resident Aysia Canterbury who lives less than 4 miles from the crash site, and Lisa Sodergren, who lives 5 miles away in Lawrence County.

Both women claim to have suffered ill health effects resulting from the spill.

Like the previous five complaints, the latest suit is asking a judge to declare it a class action, which would allow others to join as plaintiffs.

This latest action and one of the other lawsuits is asking that anyone living or working within a thirty mile radius of the spill be permitted sue the railroad.  If that were granted by the court, people living as far away as Salem, East Liverpool, Alliance, Youngstown, Niles, and Hubbard in Ohio, as well as Aliquippa, Cranberry, Sharon and Hermitage in Pennsylvania.

One of the lawsuits had been filed in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, but has since been moved to federal court.

All six lawsuits are seeking damages from Norfolk Southern, which has yet to file a response to the complaints.