Dispersants Used in BP Gulf Oil Spill Linked to Cancer

By Environment News Service

Five of the 57 ingredients in dispersants approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use on oil spills are linked to cancer, finds a new research report based on data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by environmental groups on the Gulf of Mexico.

The report from Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, along with Toxipedia Consulting Services, is based on material released by the U.S. EPA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by Earthjustice on behalf of the Gulf Restoration Network and the Florida Wildlife Federation.

BP anniversary: Toxicity, suffering and death

The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster has caused the biggest chemical poisoning crisis in US history, experts say

Medical and toxicology experts have told Al Jazeera that the oil spill has triggered environmental and human health disasters that will likely span decades. Erika Blumenfeld, Al Jazeera

By Dahr Jamail
Al Jazeera

April 20, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of BP’s catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. On this day in 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, causing oil to gush from 5,000 feet below the surface into the ninth largest body of water on the planet.

At least 4.9 million barrels of BP’s oil would eventually be released into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was capped 87 days later.

It is, to date, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. BP has used at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic dispersants to sink the oil, in an effort the oil giant claimed was aimed at keeping the oil from reaching shore.

NASA Data Strengthens Reports of Toxic Rain from BP Gulf Spill

Orange Beach, Alabama, March 3, 2011

Government data collected during the oil spill last summer, which is now being released by one of the scientists on the NASA team, strengthens claims that oil and dispersant were brought onshore in rain during the spill.

By Jerry Cope
HuffPo

Along the Gulf Coast, the marketing blitz for spring break is rolling out as the oil from the BP blowout 11 months ago continues to roll in along with increasing numbers of dead infant dolphins, in numbers completely without precedent. The beaches remain polluted with toxic oil and dispersant even as local politicians and government officials insist everything is fine and the oil miraculously gone. Thousands of pounds are collected each day from the few areas that remain under scrutiny, all of those being in highly visible resort areas. In one zone on Ft. Morgan beach in Alabama, a record 17,000 lbs was collected in one day after a winter storm rolled through. Along the beaches of Alabama in areas not frequented by media or guests, dead infant dolphins are left uncollected in the sand. Current plans by mayors of resort communities along the Gulf Coast will have thousands of vacationers, including at-risk populations, once again making sandcastles and sunbathing on toxic, polluted beaches.

Gulf spill sickness wrecking lives: Meet the sick, dying and dead

Nearly a year after the oil disaster began, Gulf Coast residents are sick and dying from BP’s toxic chemicals.


National and State Parks along the Gulf Coast have posted health warnings along the coast [Erika Blumenfeld/AJE]

By Dahr Jamail
Al Jazeerah English

“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.”

Woods Hole: Dispersant failed to degrade in Gulf of Mexico

By Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

To combat last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, nearly 800,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were injected directly into the oil and gas flow coming out of the wellhead nearly one mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, as scientists begin to assess how well the strategy worked at breaking up oil droplets, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) chemist Elizabeth B. Kujawinski and her colleagues report that a major component of the dispersant itself was contained within an oil-gas-laden plume in the deep ocean and had still not degraded some three months after it was applied.

Researchers Find 40-Fold Increase in Carcinogenic Compounds in Gulf

By Dan Froomkin
Huffington Post

Researchers testing the waters off Louisiana in June found hugely elevated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, some of which are known carcinogens. The researchers from Oregon State University say that a device taking samples just off the shore of Louisiana’s Grande Isle registered a 40-fold increase in PAHs between May and June.

What’s worse is that the sampling device was specifically designed to measure the fraction of PAHs in the environment that could make their way through a biological membrane.

Thousands along the Gulf Coast Suffer ‘BP Crud’

The Untold Story of Human Health Effects From BP’s Oil Disaster

By Glynn Wilson
Locust Fork News Journal
Sept. 7, 2010

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Wherever disaster strikes, there’s always an associated crud. There was the Exxon Valdez Crud. The Nine Eleven Crud. The Katrina Cough, and then the TVA coal ash cough. Now, along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, there is the BP Crud, afflicting workers and the general population from Louisiana to Florida.

Opened Gulf still soaked with oil; dispersants still being used

Democracy Now! interviews Dahr Jamail 
23 Aug 2010

Areas of the Gulf of Mexico reopened to fishing still show oil and dispersants, according to local fishermen and independent journalist Dahr Jamail. Witnesses report that BP’s contractors are still spraying surface oil with dispersants. With Obama assuring us that Gulf seafood is safe to eat (despite this JAMA report to the contrary), Gulf Coast residents have to wonder if we are not under attack by our own government and the oil barons it serves. ~ Ed.

Is Gulf Seafood Really Safe?

By Kate Sheppard
Mother Jones

In addition to efforts to convince us that the oil is all gone in the Gulf (it’s not), the government has been promoting the idea that seafood from the region is totally safe. Obama himself has been banging this drum, noshing on plenty of seafood during his trip to the region last week, serving it up at his birthday bash, and of course, taking a dip in the Gulf with his daughter.

But how safe is it really? A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that there may be good reason to be concerned about the long-term impacts, even if the seafood is safe for most people to eat right now.

Mississippi Shrimpers Refuse to Trawl Fearing Oil, Dispersants

By Dahr Jamail
IPS

BILOXI, Mississippi, Aug 20, 2010  – The U.S. state of Mississippi recently reopened all of its fishing areas. The problem is that commercial shrimpers refuse to trawl because they fear the toxicity of the waters and marine life due to the BP oil disaster.

“We come out and catch all our Mississippi oysters right here,” James “Catfish” Miller, a commercial shrimper in Mississippi, told IPS. Pointing to the area in the Mississippi Sound from his shrimp boat, he added, “It’s the only place in Mississippi to catch oysters, and there is oil and dispersants all over the top of it.”

Lawsuit Seeks Full Disclosure of Dispersant Impacts on Gulf’s Endangered Wildlife

By Center for Biological Diversity

The Center for Biological Diversity today filed an official notice of its intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for authorizing the use of toxic dispersants without ensuring that these chemicals would not harm endangered species and their habitats. The letter requests that the agency, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, immediately study the effects of dispersants on species such as sea turtles, sperm whales, piping plovers, and corals and incorporate this knowledge into oil-spill response efforts.

“The Gulf of Mexico has become Frankenstein’s laboratory for BP’s enormous, uncontrolled experiment in flooding the ocean with toxic chemicals,” said Andrea Treece, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The fact that no one in the federal government ever required that these chemicals be proven safe for this sort of use before they were set loose on the environment is inexcusable.”