Deadly: Corexit, Oil Dispersant Used By BP In Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Is Destroying Marine Life, Say Scientists

Flashback:

– BP Oil Spill: NASA Report Confirms Toxic Dispersants DID Rain Down On Gulf Coast

– Gulf: 6 Dangerous Chemicals Found In Blood Tests By 3 Separate Labs (Video)

– Louisiana Senator Blasts President Obama About COREXIT Poisoning of the Gulf

– The Perfect Genetic Storm: Synthetic DNA and the Gulf Blue Plague (And A Shocking Gulf Update)

– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Gulf Coast Oil Spill’ (Full Length Video)

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– A Deadly Paradox: Scientists Discover the Agent Used in Gulf Spill Cleanup Is Destroying Marine Life (Take Part, April 25, 2013):

Three years after the BP oil spill, new truths come to light—from deep down inside the ocean.

Three years ago, when BP’s Deepwater Horizon began leaking some 210 million gallons of Louisiana Crude into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. government allowed the company to apply chemical “dispersants” to the blossoming oil slick to prevent toxic gunk from reaching the fragile bays, beaches, and mangroves of the coast, where so much marine life originates. But a number of recent studies show that BP and the feds may have made a huge mistake, for which everything from microscopic organisms to bottlenose dolphins are now paying the highest price.

After the spill, BP secured about a third of the world’s supply of dispersants, namely Corexit 9500 and 9527, according to The New York Times. Of the two, 9527 is more toxic. Corexit dispersants emulsify oil into tiny beads, causing them to sink toward the bottom. Wave action and wind turbulence degrade the oil further, and evaporation concentrates the toxins in the oil-Corexit mixture, including dangerous compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), known to cause cancer and developmental disorders.

When BP began spraying the Gulf, critics cried foul. They said Corexit is not only toxic to marine life on its own, but when combined with crude oil, the mixture becomes several times more toxic than oil or dispersant alone.

Not surprisingly, BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley defended use of the dispersant. “The toxicity of Corexit is about the same as dish soap, which is effectively what it is and how it works,” he told stockholders. “In hindsight no one believes that that was the wrong thing and it would have been much worse without the use of it. I do not believe anybody—anybody with almost common sense—would say waves of black oil washing into the marshes and beaches would have been a better thing, under any circumstances.”

BP says that Corexit is harmless to marine life, while the Environmental Protection Agency has waffled, saying both that “long term effects [of dispersants] on aquatic life are unknown” and that data “do not indicate any significant effects on aquatic life. Moreover, decreased size of the oil droplets is a good indication that, so far, the dispersant is effective.”

But many scientists, such as Dr. William Sawyer, a Louisiana toxicologist, argue that Corexit can be deadly to people and sea creatures alike. “Corexit components are also known as deodorized kerosene,” Sawyer said in a written statement for the Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group, a legal consortium representing environmental groups and individuals affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill. “With respect to marine toxicity and potential human health risks, studies of kerosene exposures strongly indicate potential health risks to volunteers, workers, sea turtles, dolphins, breathing reptiles and all species which need to surface for air exchanges, as well as birds and all other mammals.” When Corexit mixes with and breaks down crude, it makes the oil far more “bioavailable” to plants and animals, critics allege, because it is more easily absorbed in its emulsified state.

Sawyer tested edible fish and shellfish from the Gulf for absorption of petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC), believed to have been facilitated by Corexit. Tissue samples taken prior to the accident had no measurable PHC. But after the oil spill, Sawyer found tissue concentrations up to 10,000 parts per million, or 1 percent of the total. The study, he said, “shows that the absorption [of the oil] was enhanced by the Corexit.”

In April 2012, Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences was finding lesions and grotesque deformities in sea life—including millions of shrimp with no eyes and crabs without eyes or claws—possibly linked to oil and dispersants.

The shocking story was ignored by major U.S. media, but covered in depth by Al Jazeera. BP said such deformities were “common” in aquatic life in the Gulf and caused by bacteria or parasites. But further studies point back to the spill.

A just-released study from the University of South Florida found that underwater plumes of BP oil, dispersed by Corexit, had produced a “massive die-off” of foraminifera, microscopic organisms at the base of the food chain. Other studies show that, as a result of oil and dispersants, plankton have either been killed or have absorbed PAHs before being consumed by other sea creatures.

Hydrocarbon-laden, mutated seafood is not the only legacy left behind by Corexit, many scientists, physicians, environmentalists, fishermen, and Gulf Coast residents contend. Earlier this week, TakePart wrote about Steve Kolian, a researcher and founder of the nonprofit group EcoRigs, whose volunteer scientists and divers seek to preserve offshore oil and gas platforms after production stops, for use as artificial reefs and for alternative energy production.

EcoRigs divers took water and marine life samples at several locations in the months following the blowout. Now, they and countless other Gulf residents are sick, with symptoms resembling something from a sci-fi horror film, including bleeding from the nose, ears, breasts, and even anus. Others complain of cognitive damage, including what one man calls getting “stuck stupid,” when he temporarily cannot move or speak, but can still hear.

“If we are getting sick, then you know the marine life out in the Gulf is too,” Kolian said. The diver and researcher completed an affidavit on human and marine health used in GAP’s report.

Kolian’s team has done studies of their own to alarming results. “We recently submitted a paper showing levels of hydrocarbons in seafood were up to 3,000 times higher than safety thresholds for human consumption,” he said. “Concentrations in biota [i.e. all marine life] samples were even greater.”

Kolian’s friend and colleague, Scott Porter, described in his affidavit to GAP how Corexit had caused dispersed crude to coat the bottom of the sea in a sickening, deadly film. In July 2011, he and other divers traveled to a part of the Florida Panhandle, known as the Emerald Coast for its pristine seawater, to collect samples for the Surfrider Foundation.

“When we went diving, however, the water had a brownish white haze that resembled what we saw in offshore Louisiana at 30 feet below sea level,” Porter’s affidavit stated. “I have never witnessed anything like that since I began diving in the Emerald Coast 20 years ago. We witnessed…a reddish brown substance on the seafloor that resembled tar and spanned a much larger area than is typical of natural runoff.”

In areas covered with the substance, “we noticed much less sea life,” Porter continued. “There were hardly any sand dollars or crabs and only some fish, whereas we would normally see an abundance of organisms. It was desolate.”

More shocking information:

– The Perfect Genetic Storm: Synthetic DNA and the Gulf Blue Plague (And A Shocking Gulf Update)

– Naval Research Laboratory Charts Show Damaged Loop Current

– The Oil BP Tried To Hide Has Been Discovered, In Thick Layers On the Sea Floor Over An Area of Several Thousand Square Miles

– 30 Facts – The Rothschild Bankers Planned The Gulf Disaster

– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Gulf Coast Oil Spill’

– The Gulf of Mexico: ‘Just Dead, Everything’s Dead’

– BP Admits Using Synthetic Microbes in Gulf

– BP oil spill incident commander dies in small plane crash

– BP Victims Won’t Be Allowed to Sue If They Accept Compensation

– White House Probe Clears BP Over Oil Spill Disaster

– Multiple Independent Lab Tests Confirm Oil In Gulf Shrimp

– Scientist John Hutchison Uses Frequency Healing to Restore The Gulf After BP Oil Spill

– Marine Toxicologist Dr. Riki Ott: ‘People Now Dropping Dead’ In the Gulf

– US Presidential Panel: Halliburton Knew Cement Mixed For BP Blowout Well Was Unstable

– Massive Stretches of Weathered Oil Found in Gulf of Mexico

– The White House Blocked Government Scientists From Warning The American Public of The Potential Environmental Disaster Caused By Gulf Oil Spill

– Gulf Update: Kindra Arnesen: Skin Barrier Gone, Speaks of Her Skin Condition And Continued Spraying in Gulf Region

– Scientists Found 40-Fold Increase In Carcinogenic Compounds In Gulf

– Blood Tests on Gulf Residents Show Benzene And Other Hydrocarbons

– Scientist Rick Steiner Got Gulf Disaster Right From The Beginning, Warns Crisis Is Far From Over

– Gulf Chemist: Mercenaries Hired By BP Are Now Applying Extremely Toxic Dispersant – at Night and In an Uncontrolled Manner – Which BP Says It No Longer Uses (Pictures)

– FDA admits NOT testing for MERCURY, ARSENIC, or any other TOXIC HEAVY METALS in Sea Food

– Gulf claims chief Ken Feinberg says BP no-sue rule was his idea, takes control of BP’s $20bn fund

– Scientists Find Giant 22-Mile Plume Of Oil Droplets From BP’s Deepwater Horizon Well ‘Missed’ By Official Account

– Matt Simmons Dies In An ‘Accidental Drowning’ At His Home

– Matthew Simmons: ‘We’ve Now Killed The Gulf Of Mexico’ (Flashback)

– Gulf Oil Blowout: Matt Simmons Was Right!

– Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico Has Stalled From BP Oil Disaster! (!)

– Scientists: Evidence Of Gulf Oil And Dispersant Mix Making Its Way Into The Foodchain

– The Growing Health Crisis in the Gulf of Mexico:

Corexit also contain arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, cyanide, and other heavy metals. Dispersing oil with it increases toxicity 11-fold ….

– EPA Whistleblower On Gulf Health Risk Cover-Up: ‘People Who Work Near Corexit Are Hemorrhaging Internally.’:

People who work near it are hemorrhaging internally. And that’s what dispersants are supposed to do.EPA now is taking the position that they really don’t know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It’s very dangerous, and it’s an economic-it’s an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public.

– Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Rig Blast: Safety Alarm Was Off

– And Now: BP Plans Deep-Water Drilling Off Libya

– Rachel Maddow: The Gulf Of Mexico Déjà Vu (Must See!)

– Matt Simmons: BP Cap Is A Fraud – ‘It’s The Biggest Cover-Up We have Ever Seen’

– Gulf Of Mexico Water Sample EXPLODES! Other Samples Prove To Be Toxic

– Toxicologists: Corexit ‘Ruptures Red Blood Cells, Causes Internal Bleeding’, ‘Allows Crude Oil To Penetrate ‘Into The Cells’ and ‘Every Organ System’

– BP Oil Blowout: All States Along Gulf Of Mexico Affected By Slick

– U.S. Senate Traitors Block Investigative Power for Oil Spill Commission

– And Now: BP admits failing to use industry risk test at any of its deepwater wells in the US

– Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

– CNN: 1st Amendment, Free Press Suspended Near Gulf Disaster Area

– Gulf of Mexico Disaster: BP Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales

– BP burns rare sea turtles alive, blocks efforts to save them

– Matt Simmons: ‘We’re going to have to evacuate the gulf states.’

– US Scientist: Methane In Gulf ‘Astonishingly High’, As Much As 1 Million Times The Normal Level

– BP Plans To Dump All North Sea Assets In Dramatic Attempt To Cut Costs

– BP Blocking Media Access To Workers (Video)

– BP Official Admits to Damage BENEATH THE SEA FLOOR

– BP Buys Search Term ‘Oil Spill’ From Google

– BP CEO Tony Hayward sold £1.4 million of his shares weeks before Gulf blowout

– Goldman Sachs Sold 44% Of Its BP Stock 3 Weeks Before Gulf Blowout

– Feds and BP Withheld Videos Showing Massive Scope of Oil Spill

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Solution Restores Environment in Just Six Weeks

– BP’s ‘brilliant’ CEO Tony Hayward clashes with scientists over deep sea oil pollution

– Matt Simmons on Bloomberg: There Is A Much Larger Leak, Creating A Gigantic Plume; US Military Should Take Over And Use Nuclear Weapons to Seal The Blowout

– BP’s top kill effort fails to plug Gulf oil leak

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Apocalypse Creates Underwater Nightmare

– Gulf of Mexico clean-up boats recalled after crews suffer health problems

– Deepwater Horizon survivors were kept in seclusion after rig explosion, coerced into signing legal waivers

– SPECIAL REPORT: Civil fine in Gulf spill could be $4,300 a barrel

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Health Hazards

– Fishermen get severly ill from clean-up work in Gulf

– NASA Images Show Oil Entering Loop Current

– New NASA Image of Gulf Oil Moving Towards Atlantic Ocean

– Worry That Gulf Oil Spreading Into Major Ocean Current

– AP IMPACT: Fed’l Inspections on Rig Not as Claimed:

The federal agency responsible for ensuring that an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was operating safely before it exploded last month fell well short of its own policy that inspections be done at least once per month, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Since January 2005, the federal Minerals Management Service conducted at least 16 fewer inspections aboard the Deepwater Horizon than it should have under the policy, a dramatic fall from the frequency of prior years, according to the agency’s records.

– Gulf of Mexico: Scientists Find Giant Plumes of Oil as Large as 10 Miles Long, 3 Miles Wide And 300 Feet Thick in Deep Waters:

Scientists studying video of the gushing oil well have tentatively calculated that it could be flowing at a rate of 25,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil a day. The latter figure would be 3.4 million gallons a day.

– Beyond Stupid: BP CEO Tony Hayward:

“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”

– US Oil Spill: Scientists and Fishermen Alarmed Over Chemical Dispersants:

Approximately 325,000 gallons of dispersant have been deployed so far in BP’s effort to break up the spreading oil slick before it hits the fragile Gulf coast, and over 500,000 gallons more are available.

– Rig firm makes $270m profit from Gulf of Mexico oil spill

– US not accepting foreign help on oil spill

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: New NOAA Projection Map; BP’s High-Stakes Mission; And More News

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The Halliburton Connection:

The company acknowledged Friday that it had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

– US Oil Spill Disaster Is Now ‘Out Of Control’