People Swim In Contaminated Ocean
Posted on 11 July 2010 by LynThomas in Uncategorized
Ryan Heffernan, volunteer with the Emerald Coastkeeper, waded into the sea and retrieved a bag of oily debris, off the shore in Santa Rosa Sound. She had asked BP’s HazMat-trained workers to retrieve it. She was politely told, “We can’t go in the ocean. It’s contaminated.”
Ryan had been swimming in the ocean the day before. The following day she was treated by a local doctor for skin rash on her legs.
There had been 5 HazMat tents and around 24 HazMat workers on the Pensacola Beach, Florida. They wore yellow over-boots duct-taped to their long pants’ legs to minimize risk of contact with the water. They had all received hazardous waste training.
Children and adults happily plunged into the ‘contaminated’ ocean, without anyone trying to stop, or warn them. Most people are barefoot, even though shoe treads become weighed down with oily sand. Hotels have setup oil cleaning stations on their premises and signs saying that swimming is not advisable.
Contaminated Beaches
From Louisiana to Florida, people are reporting skin rashes and blisters, after going into the ocean. Not all the oil washing ashore is visible, as dispersed oil, encased in chemical dispersants, are in the water column.
There are complaints from people across all four Gulf States, with persistent coughs, stuffy sinuses, headaches, burning eyes, sore throats, ear bleeds and fatigue. The symptoms of respiratory problems, central nervous system distress and skin irritation are consistent with overexposure to crude oil.
Officials have sounded no alarm about a public health threat because three federal agencies – DHHS, EPA and OSHA – cannot find any unsafe levels of oil in air or water. The medical and scientific community however, widely recognize the toxic threat from crude oil.
BP officials stress that, by the time oil reaches the shore, it is “weathered” and missing highly volatile compounds such as carcinogenic benzene. BP fails to mention the threat from dispersed oil, ultrafine particles (PAHs) and chemical dispersants, which include industrial solvents and proprietary compounds, many hazardous to humans.
Workers at the spill site have suffered numerous health problems due to oil exposure.
The burn off fires , an easy and inexpensive fix to the oil spill, release volumes of toxic gases, of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogrn oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene.
Nearly 5 million gallons of oil have been burned at temperatures well above 2,000 degrees. No official air quality monitoring occurs because most of the burn sites are 50 miles offshore, well beyond the Environmental Protection Agency’s jurisdiction.
BP claims it is replacing the leaking cap with a tighter one and a skimming super oil tanker has finally been sent to the oil spill area.
Bp admits it did not use standard industry process to assess risk on any of its US wells, including the high –pressure Deepwater Horizon well. The safety case was developed in Britain after the catastrophic 1988 Piper Alpha oil rig explosion, in which 167 people lost their lives.
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[...] Volunteer with the Emerald Coastkeeper, Ryan Heffernan, plungeded into the ocean to retrieve a bag of oily debris, off the shore in Santa Rosa Sound. She had asked BP’s HazMat-trained workers to retrieve it. She was politely told, “We can’t go in the ocean. It’s contaminated.” Read how many people are suffering from over exposure to crude oil… [...]