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Friday, October 29, 2010

BP oil spill.: the damage lingers on

The election and other matters have pushed news from the disastrous Deep Horizon oil spill from the front page but the effects linger on and the news is anything but good.

The leak was capped and everyone concerned gave themselves a pat on the back and moved on.

A couple of days ago the Commission investigating the spill found that the Halliburton cement used to seal the bottom of BP's wild Gulf well in April was unstable and was used despite multiple failed tests in the weeks leading up to the massive well blowout.

The devastation lingers on. Here are some recent reports in the media that have been largely ignored as have the possible health hazards created by the toxic dispersants used by BP. Most of these reports quoted below are from foreign news sources where they actually do more reporting than the brain dead U.S. media

In Florida, state officials deemed lab tests on open harvesting areas “a waste of money and resources,” [Alan Peirce, bureau chief at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Division of Aquaculture] said

The following excerpts culled from a variety of news reports is obviously not enough for the authorities to worry about.

Two-year-old Gavin Tillman of Pass Christian, Mississippi, has been diagnosed with severe upper respiratory, sinus, and viral infections. His temperature has reached more than 102 degrees since September 15, yet his sicknesses continue to worsen.

His parents, some doctors, and environmental consultants believe the child's ailments are linked to exposure to chemicals spilt by BP during its Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of widely banned toxic dispersants (one that has been banned in the UK), which according to chemist Bob Naman, create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil. And dispersed, weathered oil continues to flow ashore daily.

Dr. Riki Ott, a toxicologist, marine biologist, and Exxon Valdez survivor: People are already dying from this… I’m dealing with three autopsy’s right now. I don’t think we’ll have to wait years to see the effects like we did in Alaska, people are dropping dead now. I know two people who are down to 4.75 per cent of their lung capacity, their heart has enlarged to make up for that, and their esophagus is disintegrating, and one of them is a 16-year-old boy who went swimming in the Gulf.”

"I started to vomit brown, and my pee was brown also," Matsler, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Dauphin Island, said. "I kept that up all day. Then I had a night of sweating and non-stop diarrhea unlike anything I’ve ever experienced."

He was also suffering from skin rashes, nausea, and a sore throat.

At roughly the same time Matsler was exposed, local television station WKRG News 5 took a water sample from his area to test for dispersants. The sample literally exploded when it was mixed with an organic solvent separating the oil from the water.

"What I'm seeing are toxified people who have been chemically poisoned," she said, "They have sore throats, respiratory problems, neurological problems, lesions, sores, and ulcers. These people have been poisoned and they are dying. Drugs aren’t going to help these people. They need to be detoxed."

Scientists who were aboard two research vessels… found substantial amounts of oil on the seafloor, contradicting statements by federal officials that the oil had largely disappeared.

State officials said, however, that they are equally worried about fishery collapses, based on the collapse of the herring fishery in the Prince William Sound area of Alaska after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989.

"I was out in West Bay on October 22nd, and I was in this thick brown foam, about five inches thick, with red swirls of oil throughout it, and there was a lot of it, at least a 10 mile patch of it," Robinson said while on his boat. "I've never seen anything like that foam before; the red stuff in it was weathered oil, and there was sheen coming off my boat when I came back into harbor. I'm concerned about the safety of the fish I'm catching."

“They are literally shrimping in oil,” Jonathan Henderson, the Coastal Resiliency Organiser for the environmental group Gulf Restoration Network, who was also on the flight, exclaimed as our plane flew over shrimpers trawling in the oil-covered area…

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