The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill And The Corexit Oil Dispersant Health Problems Confirmed
H/t reader squodgy:
“I wonder what the real story is.
There’s all sorts of rumours, like the one that all the oil is collecting on the seabed.
Nevertheless, what corexit does can only be evil.”
* * *
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Flashback:
– Halliburton To Plead Guilty To Destroying Gulf Evidence And To Pay Maximum Fine Of $200,000
– Halliburton Admits It Destroyed Gulf Spill Evidence, … Pays 0.0007% Of Revenue Fine
– 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)
More shocking information down below.
National and State Parks along the Gulf Coast have posted health warnings along the coast [Erika Blumenfeld/AJE]
– Gulf spill sickness wrecking lives (Al Jazeera, Jan 9, 2014):
Nearly a year after the oil disaster began, Gulf Coast residents are sick, and dying from BP’s toxic chemicals.
“I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body,” 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. “Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood test results and the nurse said she didn’t know how I even got there.”
Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010.
“I swam underwater, then found I had orange slick stuff all over me,” Aguinaga said. “At that time I had no knowledge of what dispersants were, but within a few hours, we were drained of energy and not feeling good. I’ve been extremely sick ever since.”
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)
– 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.
See also:
– Independent Scienctist Leuren Moret: New World Order – Depopulation Agenda – Genocide (Video)
– THEY WANT US DEAD! – Red Level Alert America (The Intel Hub, Sep. 30, 2011):
While we are all focusing on the coming financial collapse, as bad as that is something much more sinister is in the works.
It’s very subtle if you are not paying attention. But, to the aware, it’s blatant, insidious, and just as horrific as Hitler’s Germany.
There is a small group of the world’s banking elite who have worked for a few hundred years with ingenious precision and unlimited money, to corral, coerce, and conquer every country of value on earth.
For people who are normal and not rabidly greedy, it’s hard to fathom the idea of anyone trying to get control of the whole world, and taking a chunk of every measure of value traded between its people. What’s even harder to grasp is that they will stop at nothing to do it. And I mean nothing! Look around you!
Remember how all the conspiracy nuts claimed the chemicals BP was dumping in the water might actually evaporate into the air and then rain down on the Gulf States, poisoning land, water, and of course, people?
And remember how the government officials said, “No, no, no! That could NEVER happen. Not to worry! … But we’re not going to let scientists look at the data we’ve collected…”
And how people kept turning up with what looked like chemical sickness, even though it was (of course) impossible?
It wasn’t impossible. A NASA scientist has started releasing some of that hitherto unavailable data. And it’s not pretty.
Read moreBP Oil Spill: NASA Report Confirms Toxic Dispersants DID Rain Down On Gulf Coast
More shocking information:
– Scientist Finds The Bottom of The Gulf of Mexico Still Oily And Dead
– US Military Purchases Contaminated Gulf of Mexico Seafood For Troops
– Gulf: 6 Dangerous Chemicals Found In Blood Tests By 3 Separate Labs (Video)
– Permanent Biological Contamination Of The Gulf
– 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)
– Naval Research Laboratory Charts Show Damaged Loop Current
– 30 Facts – The Rothschild Bankers Planned The Gulf Disaster
– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Gulf Coast Oil Spill’
Read moreVideo: Toxic Sludge On Florida Beach, Everything Is Dead!!! (3/6/2011)
Added: 28. January 2011
See also:
– 30 Facts – The Rothschild Bankers Planned The Gulf Disaster
– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Gulf Coast Oil Spill’ (Must-see!)
More shocking information at the end of Senator Crow’s letter.
1/16/2011
The Honorable Barack Obama
The President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: The environmental impact of dispersing Corexit during and after the oil spill
Dear Mr. President;
The BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico has now been acknowledged as the greatest manmade disaster in history but there is yet another manmade disaster that must not be overlooked and has not been adequately addressed in the recently released report of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
That second major disaster has been caused by the unnecessary use of the toxin Corexit dispersant. In early May of 2010 just after the crisis began, I requested that our Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell use whatever legal means were necessary to stop the use of this toxin. Shortly thereafter, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal requested that the use of this toxic dispersant be discontinued because of the long-term environmental damage. And still later, it was reported in the media that you also ordered BP to stop using Corexit. Surprisingly, I also read in the media that they even refused your request.
Mr. President, my concern is that this toxic and damaging chemical is still being used and it will compound the long-term damage to our state, our citizens, our eco-system, our economy, our seafood industry, our wildlife and our culture.
I am well aware that our emphasis, resources and energy is currently engaged working through the administrative and legal proceedings of the oil disaster but we must also recognize and begin the same process to address the damage Corexit has done and will continue to do as we go forward.
As the State Senator for District 1 in the southeastern corner of the State of Louisiana representing the parishes of St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Orleans and Plaquemines, I respectfully request that you have your administrative officials provide the information requested in this letter. I need to make that information available to my constituents who are seeing their lives and lands threatened and their way of life hanging in the balance. Due to the threats to public safety and ecological realities, I am compelled to write this letter requesting answers to my questions regarding the role of the United States Government in administering the response to the crises in the Gulf. It is apparent that the response directed by our government was inadequate because it allowed the use of Corexit dispersants which increased the toxicity level of the spilled oil and delivered no substantial benefit.
Corexit dispersants increased the toxicity of the oil itself when the two were mixed together. Its use caused the cross contamination of the Gulf water column by forcing the transfer of the surface oil downward through the water column, causing the oil to sink to the Gulf floor. The result was an unnecessary elevated negative impact as this same oil moved ashore later to the tidal zones delivering toxic weathered oil to coastal residents, tourists and businesses and workers in the Gulf region.
Government officials stated over and over that the use of the dispersants was designed to break up the oil into smaller digestible parts to be consumed by the sub-sea living micro-organisms. This strategy is unsubstantiated. In fact, the Corexit dispersant created the opposite results since Corexit contains toxic ingredients which act as biocides to prevent microbial digestion of the oil. Physical evidence supports that the entire response administered by government agencies have been inadequate.
Read moreLouisiana Senator Blasts President Obama About COREXIT Poisoning of the Gulf
Gulf update:
-BK Lim, Geohazards Specialist: A Letter to Congressmen on BP Mega Oil Spill in the Gulf
– A BP Gulf Oil Spill Hero Becomes The Subject Of Assassination Attempts
– In Honor of Dr. Thomas B. Manton, a BP Gulf Disaster Hero Railroaded, Murdered In Florida Prison
– Disturbing Facts and Errors in the BP and Oil Commission Reports
– Gulf hero Dr. Riki Ott: Diary of a Disaster: 6 Months in the Gulf
– Prof. Dr. Dick Snyder, University of West Florida:
“Man look at all this oil … Any place sand is dynamic, good chance we’re going to have buried oil, that includes sand bars just off beach, we don’t know how much is out there or where it is …
More shocking info at the end of the following excellent article …
There’s a new proprietary recipe being force-fed to all of us here on the Gulf of Mexico that is now becoming available worldwide. Although this recipe has been closely guarded for 8 months, we were able to break it down after examining the plentiful supply us “Gulf Coasters” have available here. The ingredients are abundantly available while both the recipe and the brewing process are not as secret as everyone had thought.
THE GULF BLUE PLATE (BP) SPECIAL
Fill a large bowl with saline ocean water, add a generous proportion of thick crude oil, then pour in a cup of liquid Correct-it (available from Nalco under the brand name Corexit) making sure you don’t spill any on yourself, stir gently, and then let it sit for a day or two. As the newly thinned oil mixture begins to sink to the bottom of the bowl, make sure the resulting gasses are allowed to ever-so-slightly bubble in orange foam on the surface. This will let you know you’re ready for the next and most important step.
Quickly add Syn-Bio (available from JCVI, SGI, and other private companies) along with a colloidal mixture containing iron, copper, and other natural elements to begin the interactive brewing process. Let it sit for no less than 6-9 months making sure nothing is allowed to disturb it. When there is no more gas coming to the surface and the mixture on the bottom turns into a gelatinous black goo, the first stage of the recipe is finished.
The amazing thing about this new state-of-the-art recipe is what it becomes after the initial first stage brewing process is finished. No-one knows! It’s no wonder some have begun to refer to it as The Blue Plate (BP) Special. You can be assured that once the second stage of this concoction begins to release its mutated biological ingredients, as it appears to have done so already, the rest of the world will abruptly notice.
Must-see:
– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Gulf Coast Oil Spill’
This article explains what is really happening in the Gulf of Mexico, who is really responsible for the explosion, and how the devastation serves investment bankers who sway stocks, create markets, and planned this crisis, among a series of catastrophies, to advance geopolitical and financial agendas for their New World Order.
by
Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Sherri Kane
Introduction
WAR has been declared against We The People. Yet, there is no country or military present to defend us.
Covert infiltrations and corruptions in governments by the “Rothschild League” of bankers and “private equity investors” now poison our bodies, minds, and planet. Yet, appropriate military and/or militia defenses are prohibited.
Crisis-capitalists are massacring us and our environment petrochemically. They have deployed propaganda—mass media deception—to camouflage their real intentions and vast destruction.
The air we breathe, food we eat, and water we drink, has been polluted to deliver profitable diseases and depopulation, simulating a “scorched earth policy” of war.
Citizen’s arrests, grand jury investigations, criminal indictments, and war crimes prosecutions are urgently needed, yet forbidden.
Generalized fear, depression, fatigue, and apathy is incapacitating our defenses, aiding the adversaries, and predisposing us to diseases and early deaths.
Based on the following irrefutable facts, the so-called “accidental explosion” in the Gulf is a Transocean/Halliburton/British Petroleum/Goldman-Sachs attack—the latest in a series of unspeakable war crimes perpetrated by Anglo-American State of “Rothschild League” bankers.
The Little-Known Rothschild Banking Dynastry
Definition and Function of War
WAR has been defined as “a contest between nations or states, carried on by force, . . . for the extension of commerce, . . . for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other.”
Read more30 Facts – The Rothschild Bankers Planned The Gulf Disaster
A MUST-SEE!
YouTube removed the video. I’ve found a replacement.
YouTube Added: 18.02.2011
Must-see:
– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: Worldwide Water Conspiracy
– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: Police State (And FEMA Concentration Camps)
And the US government told you it is safe to stay or even encouraged you to plan your holidays there and BP hasn’t stopped spraying Corexit all over the place.
Added: 3. September 2010
Related information:
– Scientist Rick Steiner Got Gulf Disaster Right From The Beginning, Warns Crisis Is Far From Over
– 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
– 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 ….
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
Read moreBlood Tests on Gulf Residents Show Benzene And Other Hydrocarbons
Bob Naman is an analytical chemist with almost 30 years in the field, based in Mobile, Alabama. When WKRG News 5 gave Naman samples of water from the Gulf of Mexico, Naman found oil contamination, and one of his samples actually exploded during testing due – he believes – to the presence of methane gas or Corexit, the dispersant that BP has been using in the Gulf:
But the story only starts there.
A few days ago, Naman was sent a sample of water from Cotton Bayou, Alabama.
Naman found 13.3 parts per million of the dispersant Corexit in the sample:
That’s a little perlexing, given that Admiral Thad Allen said on August 9th that dispersants have not been used in the Gulf since mid-July:
We have not used dispersant since the capping stack was put on. I believe that was the 15th of July.
***
But I would tell you, there are no dispersants being used at this time.
More imporantly, Naman told me that he found 2-butoxyethanol in the sample.
BP and Nalco – the manufacturer of Corexit – have said that dispersant containing 2-butoxyethanol is no longer being sprayed in the Gulf. As the New York Times noted in June:
Corexit 9527, used in lesser quantities during the earlier days of the spill response, is designated a chronic and acute health hazard by EPA. The 9527 formula contains 2-butoxyethanol, pinpointed as the cause of lingering health problems experienced by cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and propylene glycol, a commonly used solvent.
Corexit 9500, described by [Nalco’s spokesman] as the “sole product” Nalco has manufactured for the Gulf since late April, contains propylene glycol and light petroleum distillates, a type of chemical refined from crude oil.
Moreover, Naman said that he searched for the main ingredient in the less toxic 9500 version – propylene glycol – but there was none present. In other words, Naman found the most toxic ingredient in 9527 and did not find the chemical marker for 9500.
See also:
Images taken during the descent of an underwater vehicle show oil droplets appearing at a depth of 1065-1300m. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images
Scientists have mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP’s rogue well in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, providing the strongest evidence yet of the fate of the crude that spewed into the sea for months.
The report offers the most authoritative challenge to date to White House assertions that most of the 5m barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf is gone.
“These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume,” said Christopher Reddy one of the members of the team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
The report, which is published in the journal Science, also said the plume was very slow to break down by natural forces, increasing the likelihood that oil could have travelled long distances in the Gulf before it was degraded.
“Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily degraded,” said Richard Camilli, the lead author of the paper. “Well we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.”
I have NOT seen any proof that this could have been caused by Corexit.
Corexit is certainly lethal stuff. Make no mistake about that:
– 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 ….
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.
Every poison you pour into the oceans will make its way into the food chain. It takes no rocket science to know that.
It also takes no genius to know that huge amounts of Corexit will accumulate if you look at the ingredients, …
– 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 ….
… which make Corexit lethal stuff:
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.
Harriet Perry, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory: Yellow oil droplets can been seen in a post-larval blue crab.
A report today from Fox 8 in New Orleans reveals that the “orange blobs found lodged in the bodies of tiny blue crab larvae collected from marshes that stretch from Texas to Florida” appear to contain Corexit, according to preliminary results from researchers at Tulane University.
The report says BP’s dispersant “may do more harm than the oil itself.”
University of New Orleans’ Martin O’Connell, Ph.D said, “No one really knows” if Corexit will bio-accumulate. “If you’re a small fish and you eat 1,000 of these small crab larvae and all of them have oil or Corexit droplets in them they could get into the fish — that little fish could be eaten and so on and so on.”
Pondering the future of the Gulf, O’Connell said, “I think they should be more concerned that we might be losing whole cohorts of these animals when they’re very small, and we won’t see the impact in the adults but three or four years from now.”
Florida toxicologist Dr. William Sawyer, who has been hired on behalf of sickened fishermen and cleanup workers, says “some of these chemicals are in great excess — of risk-based lethal levels — that the current hydrocarbon levels are capable of sterilizing our fisheries and estuary production zones.”
The Fox 8 report concludes, “Since so many fish and crabs feed on crab larvae, some scientists fear the oil and dispersant droplets threaten to kill critical areas in the Gulf of Mexico food web.”
Please read the full report here: http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Blobs-in-crab-larvae-characteristic-of-dispersant/IJoKO4b-W0GsfjK1L_SkAQ.cspx
July 31st, 2010 at 04:05 AM
Source: Florida Oil Spill Law
Scientists have found signs of an oil-and-dispersant mix under the shells of tiny blue crab larvae in the Gulf of Mexico, the first clear indication that the unprecedented use of dispersants in the BP oil spill has broken up the oil into toxic droplets so tiny that they can easily enter the foodchain.
Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them “in almost all” of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. — more than 300 miles of coastline — said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.
And now, a team of researchers from Tulane University using infrared spectrometry to determine the chemical makeup of the blobs has detected the signature for Corexit, the dispersant BP used so widely in the Deepwater Horizon
“It does appear that there is a Corexit sort of fingerprint in the blob samples that we ran,” Erin Gray, a Tulane biologist, told the Huffington Post Thursday. Two independent tests are being run to confirm those findings, “so don’t say that we’re 100 percent sure yet,” Gray said.
“The chemistry test is still not completely conclusive,” said Tulane biology professor Caz Taylor, the team’s leader. “But that seems the most likely thing.”
Read moreScientists: Evidence Of Gulf Oil And Dispersant Mix Making Its Way Into The Foodchain
Don’t miss:
The combination of millions of gallons of oil and dispersants has made large areas of the Gulf toxic and dangerous, marine toxicologist Ricki Ott saying if she lived there with children she’d leave – based on her firsthand experience after the 1989 Prince William Sound, Alaska Exxon Valdez disaster and subsequent research, documented in her books titled, “Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill” and “Not One Drop – Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.”
Ongoing today, the legacy includes criminal negligence, bankruptcies, destroyed lives and livelihoods, domestic violence, severe anxiety, trauma, PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse, serious illnesses, suicides, massive loss of plant and wildlife, and vast ecological destruction from the 30 million or more gallons spilled, the State of Alaska’s conservative estimate, not Exxon’s 11 million figure, its lowball claim to hide the disaster’s magnitude and minimize its liability.
The Gulf catastrophe is infinitely greater, estimates up to three or more Exxon Valdez incidents (using Exxon’s figure) a week until capped. Yet some experts think another seabed hole (a few miles from the Macondo well) is emitting 100,000 or more barrels daily, greatly compounding the growing disaster, added to more by numerous small leaks, five or more alone in BP’s Macondo well – the “well from hell,” according to some.
Geologist Chris Landau is one, telling Petroleum World that “BP has drilled into a deep-core oil volcano that cannot be stopped, regardless of the horizontal drills the company claims will stop the oil plume in August.”
Ocean Energy Institute Founder Matthew Simmons is another, telling Bloomberg we’ve killed the Gulf of Mexico – its $2.2 trillion economy by depleting oxygen, decimating aquatic life and poisoning the food chain. We’ve also created a public health crisis, problems showing up first in cleanup workers experiencing dizziness, fainting, nausea, nosebleeds, vomiting, coughing, headaches, stomach upset, and difficulty breathing, compounded by heat, fatigue, hydrocarbon smell, and combined toxicity of oil and dispersants.
Besides other toxins, crude oil contains benzene, in even small amounts associated with leukemia, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, other serious blood and immune system diseases, ventricular fibrillation, congestive gastritis, toxic gastritis, pyloric stenosis, myalgia, kidney damage, skin irritation and burns, swelling and edema, vascular congestion in the brain, and lethal central nervous system depression among others, depending on length and degree of exposure.
The EPA’s safe level is 4 parts per billion (ppb), yet Gulf levels reach or top 3,000, smelled hundreds of miles away, meaning residents inhaling fumes are ingesting dangerous toxins, raising their risk for serious future health problems, some potentially lethal.
Long-term exposure to benzene, ethylbenzene, xylene, toluene and other solvents may cause infertility, low-birth weight babies, miscarriages, decreased cognitive function, psychomotor coordination problems, weakened immunity, and increased risk of depression, insomnia, certain cancers, and other diseases.
In their book Generations at Risk, Ted Schettler, Gina Solomon, Maria Valenti and Annette Huddle reviewed the physical properties of solvents, enabling humans to ingest them saying:
“They evaporate in air at room temperature and are therefore easily inhaled; they penetrate the skin easily; and they cross the placenta, sometimes accumulating at higher doses in the fetus. In addition, many solvents (like benzene) enter breast fat and are found in breast milk, sometimes at higher concentrations than in maternal blood.”
“Solvents contaminating drinking water enter the body through skin absorption and inhalation in the shower, as well as through drinking water. In fact, the total exposure from taking a ten minute shower in contaminated water is greater than….drinking two quarts of the same water. Solvents are generally short-lived in the human body, lingering for no more than several days.” When longer-term, however, much greater harm results.
Exposure can cause “a range of ill effects, including damage to the skin, liver, central nervous system, lungs, and kidneys. Certain solvents can inhibit blood cell production.” Many are carcinogenic. Glycol ethers can cause birth defects, testicular damage, infertility, and failed pregnancies. Exposed men experience low sperm counts, women reproductive problems, everyone potential serious future health problems.
After the 2002 Galicia, Spain Prestige oil spill and 2007 South Korean Hebei Spirit one, fishermen and cleanup workers suffered from respiratory and central nervous system problems, even genetic damage. After the Exxon Valdez disaster, BP’s then medical director, Dr. Robert Rigg warned:
“It is a known fact that neurological changes (brain damage), skin disorders, (including cancer), liver and kidney damage, cancer of the other organs, and medical complications – secondary to exposure to working unprotected (or inadequately protected) – can and will occur (in) workers exposed to crude oil and other petrochemical by-products.” Short-term symptoms and complaints may be early warnings of serious long-term harm.
Public health specialists Ellen-Marie Whelan and Lesley Russell from the Center for American Progress said:
“We know that Exxon Valdez cleanup workers faced average oil mist exposure that was twelve times higher than government-approved limits, and those who washed the beaches with hot water experienced a maximum exposure 400 times higher than these limits. Many of those workers suffered subsequent health problems, and in 1989, 1,811 workers filed compensation claims, primarily for respiratory system damage, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.” Today, we face “what some are calling the worst-ever ecological disaster without an appropriate public health response in place.”
Whelan and Russell also cited the dangers of “controlled burns,” saying “When we aerosolize those oil droplets, they can be breathed in, which can be very damaging to the lungs, and can” irritate the eyes, throat, and cause nausea and vomiting. Early May EPA air tests in the greater Venice, LA area showed toxin levels far exceeding safe standards onshore – 100 – 1,000-fold for volatile organic carbons (VOC), including hydrogen sulfide, and other emitted chemicals.
According to Ott and other experts, if air, land and water toxicity exceeds safe levels, Washington is obligated to evacuate residents, as it would ahead of a dangerous hurricane. “The current situation is a disaster in the making,” so far covered up and unaddressed.
Chemical Dispersants – Compounding the Disaster
According to the EPA:
“Dispersants have not been used extensively in the United States because of possible long term environment effects, difficulties with timely and effective application, disagreement among scientists and research date about their environmental effects, effectiveness, and toxicity concerns.”
Extensive use of them (two million or more gallons so far) is a giant uncontrolled human/wildlife/ecological experiment, especially combined with oil.
Oil is toxic at 11 parts per million (ppm) while Corexit 9500 at only 2.61 ppm, and Corexit 9527 even less, the EPA calling it an acute health hazard. Its main ingredient, 2-butoxyethanol, is a dangerous neurotoxin pesticide known to cause cancer, reproductive problems, birth defects, genetic mutations, blood disorders, and damage to kidneys, liver and central nervous system.
It’s not known if Corexit 9500 contains 2-butoxyethanol. Science Corps.org lists it among its toxic ingredients. For competitive reasons, Nalco, its producer, keeps its formula secret, but what’s disclosed is extremely toxic, including dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (DSS), causing severe eye and skin irritation as well as diarrhea, intestinal bloating, cramps and nausea when ingested, including by inhaling fumes. It’s also cytotoxic, especially to liver cells.
Corexit also contain arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, cyanide, and other heavy metals. Dispersing oil with it increases toxicity 11-fold, suggesting a calamitous looming public health disaster, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of area residents and in other states if toxins spread by rains. More on that below.
With BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. We speak with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. [includes rush transcript]
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: The Obama administration has given BP the go-ahead to keep its ruptured well sealed for another day despite worries about the well leaking some oil and methane gas. National Incident Commander Thad Allen said the seep was not cause for alarm. Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has released its analysis of BP’s data on the exposure of cleanup workers to the chemical dispersants being used in the Gulf. OSHA chief David Michaels told the environmental website Greenwire that, quote, “I think you can say exposures are low for workers. Exposures of workers on shore are virtually nonexistent. There are significant exposures near the source, and that’s to be expected given the work being done there. Those workers are given respiratory protection,” he said. But with BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. At a Senate subcommittee hearing last week, Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski grilled administrators from the EPA about Corexit and said she didn’t want dispersants to be the Agent Orange of this oil spill.
AMY GOODMAN: Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski. While concerns over the impact of chemical dispersants continue to grow, Gulf Coast residents are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money cleanup workers earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. It’s seen as an effort to limit the number of lawsuits against BP. We’re joined now by two guests on these two issues, on Corexit and the workers. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail is joining us from Tampa, Florida. He’s been reporting from the Gulf Coast for three weeks. His latest article at Truthout is called “BP’s Scheme to Swindle the ‘Small People.'” And from Washington, DC, we’re joined by Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He’s been a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Hugh Kaufman. First of all, explain what Corexit is, the company that makes it, what’s in it, and your concerns.
HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money. And the government-both EPA, NOAA, etc.-have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up. Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that’s been going on for almost three months.
Congressman Markey and Nadler, as well as Senator Mikulski, have been heroes in this respect. Congressman Markey made the BP and government put a camera down there to show the public the gusher. And when they did that, experts saw that the amount of material, oil being released, is orders of magnitudes greater than what BP and NOAA and EPA were saying. And the cover-up started to evaporate. But the use of dispersants has not. Consequently, we have people, wildlife-we have dolphins that are hemorrhaging.
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.
Now, the one thing that I did want to mention to you, Amy, that’s occurred in most investigations, back even in the Watergate days, people said, “follow the money.” And that’s correct. In this case, you’ve got to follow the money. Who saves money by using these toxic dispersants? Well, it’s BP. But then the next question-I’ve only seen one article that describes it-who owns BP? And I think when you look and see who owns BP, you find that it’s the majority ownership, a billion shares, is a company called BlackRock that was created, owned and run by a gentleman named Larry Fink. And Vanity Fair just did recently an article about Mr. Fink and his connections with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Summers and others in the administration. So I think what’s needed, we now know that there’s a cover-up. Dispersants are being used. Congress, at least three Congress folks-Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski-are on the case. And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.
As I have previously noted, Corexit is toxic, is less effective than other dispersants, and is actually worsening the damage caused by the oil spill.
Now, two toxicologists are saying that Corexit is much more harmful to human health and marine life than we’ve been told.
Specifically Gulf toxicologist Dr. Susan Shaw – Founder and Director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute – dove into the oil spill to examine the chemicals present.
Dr. Shaw told CNN:
If I can tell you what happens – because I was in the oil – to people…
Shrimpers throwing their nets into water… [then] water from the nets splashed on his skin. …
[He experienced a] headache that lasted 3 weeks… heart palpitations… muscle spasms… bleeding from the rectum…
And that’s what that Corexit does, it ruptures red blood cells, causes internal bleeding, and liver and kidney damage. …
This stuff is so toxic combined… not the oil or dispersants alone. …
Very, very toxic and goes right through skin.
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The reason this is so toxic is because of these solvents [from dispersant] that penetrate the skin of anything that’s going through the dispersed oil takes the oil into the cells – takes the oil into the organs… and this stuff is toxic to every organ system in the body. …
Similarly, marine biologist and toxicologist Dr. Chris Pincetich – who has an extensive background in testing the affects of chemicals on fish – says that Corexit disrupts cell membranes.
He also explains that EPA toxicity testing for Corexit is woefully inadequate, since EPA testing for mortality usually only requires a 96-hour time frame. His doctoral research found that fish that were alive at 96 hours after exposure to pesticide were dead at two weeks, so the chemicals were considered non-lethal for the purposes of the test.
