#corexit

[rjzimmerman]

People exposed to the chemical suffer coughing, wheezing and rashes, lawsuit says.

Excerpt from this Washington Post article:

Fearing the next spill, Arnesen joined a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that the agency has allowed 25 years to go by without updating the National Contingency Plan to respond to oil spills. On Monday, the University of California at Berkeley Environmental Law Center issued the agency a 60-day intent to sue notice on behalf of several groups and individuals “for failure to perform a non-discretionary duty” under the Clean Water Act.

In the absence of an update, the EPA has continued to allow emergency responders to use a chemical mixture called Corexit to disperse oil into droplets that allow microbes to further break it down, the groups say.

About 20 percent of nearly 5,000 Coast Guard personnel who responded to the BP spill and were exposed to the toxin reported persistent coughing. Others experienced wheezing and trouble breathing, according to a 2018 study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health.

“The combination of both oil and oil dispersants presented associations that were much greater in magnitude than oil alone for coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing,” the report said.

A Louisiana State University study two years prior reported a similar finding: that symptoms from exposure resulted in “burning in nose, throat or lungs, sore throat, dizziness and wheezing."

The other plaintiffs come from Alaska, where the Trump administration is pushing to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing for the first time. They include an activist inletkeeper, a community group and an Inuit woman.

[gwlarson2002]

Opinion | Gulf Residents Deserve The Full Truth About Oil Cleanup Chemicals

Eight years later, scientists are confirming the lasting impact of the BP oil spill -- and what may have made it worse.

[lisahowellens]

Remember Corexit, the dispersant used in the BP cleanup (if cleanup is the right word)? At the time, Scientific American called the use of Corexit a “massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico.” The Scientific American article pointed out that Corexit “exerts a synergistic effect when mixed with oil, increasing its toxicity”. So how have things shaken out since 2010? Lori Bosarge of Coden, Alabama, was exposed to Corexit when it was sprayed on Portersville Bay, a quarter mile from her home. First, Lori struggled with debilitating breathing issues and constant skin rashes. Later, in 2016, she began to have seizures, and then an aneurism. But, she says, many folks around Coden and Bayou La Batre are even sicker. And so Lori has become an activist, keeping national environmental watchdog groups abreast of the situation on the Alabama Coast. According to a report by the Government Accountability Project (2018), cancer rates are rising fast in Gulf communities exposed to Corexit. The symptoms jibe with warnings on the manufacturer label, stating Corexit’s potential human health hazard is high, and exposure can cause central nervous system effects as well as kidney and liver damage. And yet BP continues to use it- years after the EPA told them to stop. Since the Corexit used in the Exxon Valdez cleanup is still on the Alaskan seabed 29 years later, it looks like it could be around for a long time to come. ‪#BP #oilspill #Corexit #dispersant #cleanup #gulfofmexico #Environment #Gulf #deepwater #DeepwaterHorizon #Toxic #coden #bayoulabatre #alabama ‬#itsalwaystheaftermath (at Coden, Alabama) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUqkMqFuvg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15px28l4r02wo

[lisahowellens]

Remember Corexit, the dispersant used in the BP cleanup (if cleanup is the right word)? At the time, Scientific American called the use of Corexit a “massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico.” The Scientific American article pointed out that Corexit “exerts a synergistic effect when mixed with oil, increasing its toxicity”. So how have things shaken out since 2010? Lori Bosarge of Coden, Alabama, was exposed to Corexit when it was sprayed on Portersville Bay, a quarter mile from her home. First, Lori struggled with debilitating breathing issues and constant skin rashes. Later, in 2016, she began to have seizures, and then an aneurism. But, she says, many folks around Coden and Bayou La Batre are even sicker. And so Lori has become an activist, keeping national environmental watchdog groups abreast of the situation on the Alabama Coast. According to a report by the Government Accountability Project (2018), cancer rates are rising fast in Gulf communities exposed to Corexit. The symptoms jibe with warnings on the manufacturer label, stating Corexit’s potential human health hazard is high, and exposure can cause central nervous system effects as well as kidney and liver damage. And yet BP continues to use it- years after the EPA told them to stop. Since the Corexit used in the Exxon Valdez cleanup is still on the Alaskan seabed 29 years later, it looks like it could be around for a long time to come. ‪#BP #oilspill #Corexit #dispersant #cleanup #gulfofmexico #Environment #Gulf #deepwater #DeepwaterHorizon #Toxic #coden #bayoulabatre #alabama ‬#itsalwaystheaftermath (at Coden, Alabama) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUqkMqFuvg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=6s2th3lv3jq9

[gwlarson2002]

Opinion | Gulf Residents Deserve The Full Truth About Oil Cleanup Chemicals

Eight years later, scientists are confirming the lasting impact of the BP oil spill -- and what may have made it worse.

Eight years later, scientists are confirming the lasting impact of the BP oil spill -- and what may have made it worse.

[little-a-public-health]

“In 2015, National Institutes of Health sources estimated that 170,000 Gulf residents would die of spill-related illnesses over the next five years. She refers to the cleanup workers as "collateral damage," and a study she was involved in about the human health impacts of the chemicals showed very high levels of BP's polycyclic hydrocarbons (crude oil) in the people they tested. "Basically, the blood of the people was turning to gas and melting their cell walls, not to mention it was changing their DNA, creating cytotoxicity and genetic toxicity." Springstead cited a study on the aforementioned sperm whales, which showed the dispersants' negative health impacts on them. The study, published in the journal Aquatic Toxicology, is titled "Chemical dispersants used in the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis are cytotoxic and genotoxic to sperm whale cells." She told Truthout she had spoken to "numerous people" who had visited the National Institutes of Health (the agency conducting the ongoing study on the sick oil cleanup workers) who "were told to go home or take their children home because they were going to die." During her more recent trips along the Gulf Coast to meet with sick people, she found "kidney, liver and lung cancers are rampant." *** We are right to acknowledge the slants of Salon and Truthout as outlets, but this article seems thorough, well-sourced, and has links to lots of research.

[naturalgasnow]

We all remember the BP spill in 2010, but do we know where all the oil went? Thanks to science, a dispersant broke most of it up and it was bio-degraded.

http://naturalgasnow.org/lesson-from-bp-spill-where-did-the-oil-go/

[tanknoise]