Louisiana deep oil drilling disaster

[Peter Lemkin]

At What Cost? BP Spill Responders Told to Forgo Precautionary Health Measures in Cleanup

Submitted by Chip on Wed, 2010-05-19 17:10

• Corporatism and Fascism
  
• Energy
  
• Environment
  
• Healthcare
  
• Human Rights
  

At What Cost? BP Spill Responders Told to Forgo Precautionary Health Measures in Cleanup
By Riki Ott | Huffington Post
Local fishermen hired to work on BP's uncontrolled oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are scared and confused. Fishermen here and in other small communities dotting the southern marshes and swamplands of Barataria Bay are getting sick from the working on the cleanup, yet BP is assuring them they don't need respirators or other special protection from the crude oil, strong hydrocarbon vapors, or chemical dispersants being sprayed in massive quantities on the oil slick.
Fishermen have never seen the results from the air-quality monitoring patches some of them wear on their rain gear when they are out booming and skimming the giant oil slick. However, more and more fishermen are suffering from bad headaches, burning eyes, persistent coughs, sore throats, stuffy sinuses, nausea, and dizziness. They are starting to suspect that BP is not telling them the truth.
And based on air monitoring conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a Louisiana coastal community, those workers seem to be correct. The EPA findings show that airborne levels of toxic chemicals like hydrogen sulfide, and volatile organic compounds like benzene, for instance, now far exceed safety standards for human exposure.
For two weeks, I've been in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama sharing stories from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which devastated the community I lived and commercially fished in, with everyone from fishermen and women to local mayors to state governors and the crush of international media.
During the 1989 cleanup in Alaska, thousands of workers had what Exxon medical doctors called, "the Valdez Crud," and dismissed as simple colds and flu. Fourteen years later, I followed the trail of sick workers through the maze of court records, congressional records, obituaries, and media stories, and made hundreds of phone calls. I found a different story. As one former cleanup worker put it, "I thought I had the Valdez Crud in 1989. I didn't think I'd have it for fourteen years." Read more.
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Many of the chemicals that make up crude oil are toxic - some are carcinogenic. Who are 'they' kidding.....! Short-term exposure to humans is probably not a problem, but any extended expose will increase the risks of harm in a non-linear way. Sadly, it is marine life and organisms that live in the intertidal zones that will suffer most and first. The plankton [both plant and animal varieties] - the bottom of the food chain will certainly be the first to effected in a big way....which will cause either a die-off and/or bioaccumulation and biomagnification of toxics up the food-chain. Thanks to BP, Halliburton and the rest of the gang...... If a corporation can be a person, why can't the rape of Mother Earth be a crime?