Mystery illnesses plague Louisiana oil spill crews

news.yahoo.com...

The article says about 415 people of the 52,000 responders have been diagnosed with health problems relating to the spill. That dosent sound too big, but heres why.

For instance, a major study of response workers by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences was not funded until six months after the spill, a critical delay that affects both the biology and the recall ability of the workers..

Six months until they started to decide that it might be right to check and see if the people are healthy? What was their reason for waiting that long?

Benzene, a known carcinogen present in crude oil, disappears from a person's blood within four months, Goldstein said.

Oh, so they wanted to cover it up. How many of us knew this was going to happen? (alot)

Local chemist Wilma Subra has been helping test people's blood for volatile solvents, and said levels of benzene among cleanup workers, divers, fishermen and crabbers are as high as 36 times that of the general population.

Wait, so its not just the cleanup workers? Now divers, fisherman, and crabbers are experiencing the same problems?

Plus, she has a few more things to say.

"As the event progresses we are seeing more and more people who are desperately ill," she said.
"Clearly it is showing that this is ongoing exposure," Subra said, noting that pathways include contact with the skin, eating contaminated seafood or breathing polluted air.
"We have been asking the federal agencies to please provide medical care from physicians who are trained in toxic exposure."

Did any federal agencies come help? According to the article, they didnt even respond to her.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, are pollutants that can cause genetic mutations and cancer. They are of particular interest in studying long-term health, but without a baseline for comparison it is difficult to know where they came from -- the oil spill or somewhere else in the environment.

Really? Where else would all these come from? Correct me if Im wrong but I dont really believe any major disaster (involving chemicals such as benzene) has happened in the gulf since the oil spill.

A local doctor about an hour southwest of New Orleans says that 90% of her patients are getting worse.

"Ninety percent of them are getting worse... Nobody has a clue as to what it is."

What does BP have to say about this?

Asked for comment, BP said in an email that "protection of response workers was a top priority" and that it had conducted "extensive monitoring of response workers" in coordination with several government agencies.
"Illness and injury reports were tracked and documented during the response, and the medical data indicate they did not differ appreciably from what would be expected among a workforce of this size under normal circumstances," it added.

Yup, everything fine, move along, nothing to see here, this never has happened before.

Wait, I mean it has before...or it hasnt....whatever

Some similar symptoms, including eye irritation, breathing problems, nausea and psychological stress, have been seen among responders to the Prestige oil tanker spill off Spain in 2002 and the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 off Alaska.

Edit - I wanted to post this because Im a bit dumbfounded that the mainstream media is actually reporting this.

reply to post by buni11687


It was only a matter of time before people began getting sick from the spill/clean-up. I'm just glad that such a small amount of people are sick from it, I expected nearly everybody who was involved in the cleanup to drop dead a few days later.

What I'm curious about is if the sickness is from the oil itself, or from the Corexit used in the cleanup? I would guess the oil because they were probably working on the beach far from where the chemicals were being dumped, but they could have also washed ashore I guess.

reply to post by TupacShakur

What I'm curious about is if the sickness is from the oil itself, or from the Corexit used in the cleanup?

I would think both would be the cause, but corexit looks like it may be worse. Heres what wikipedia has to say about it

en.wikipedia.org...

According to the manufacturer's website, workers applying Corexit should wear breathing protection and work in a ventilated area.[22] Compared with 12 other dispersants listed by the EPA, Corexit 9500 and 9527 are either similarly toxic or 10 to 20 times more toxic.[8] In another preliminary EPA study of eight different dispersants, Corexit 9500 was found to be less toxic to some marine life than other dispersants and to break down within weeks, rather than settling to the bottom of the ocean or collecting in the water.[23] None of the eight products tested are "without toxicity", according to an EPA administrator, and the ecological effect of mixing the dispersants with oil is unknown, as is the toxicity of the breakdown products of the dispersant.[23]

Corexit 9527, considered by the EPA to be an acute health hazard, is stated by its manufacturer to be potentially harmful to red blood cells, the kidneys and the liver, and may irritate eyes and skin.[15][24] The chemical 2-butoxyethanol, found in Corexit 9527, was identified as having caused lasting health problems in workers involved in the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.[25] According to the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the use of Corexit during the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused people "respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders".[17] Like 9527, 9500 can cause hemolysis (rupture of blood cells) and may also cause internal bleeding.[5]

According to the EPA, Corexit is more toxic than dispersants made by several competitors and less effective in handling southern Louisiana crude.[26]

Yea, corexit looks like the nastier one.

reply to post by buni11687


Why would we dump that in the ocean? I can't understand why such stupid people can get into positions of power where they get the opportunity to make idiotic decisions like that.

Oh wait, this is America.