While BP insisted 'Corexit' was completely safe. That might be true. If the oil dispersant was tested in the lab by itself. But, when it was joined by some of the most toxic 'crude oil' in the world, it increased the deadly toxins to the entire water column rather than simply floating on top.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick
I hate it that in the year 2010 and 2011 the people of the USA have to learn everything by 'trial and error' rather than through wisdom. Whatever happened to 'reason?' Does Bobby Jindle's politics mean more to human well being than caution and prudent reasoning?
... "The dispersant is widely considered more dangerous (click here) to human health than the oil itself," Plummer said, "and several clean-up workers exposed to the dispersant have been reported as coming down with health problems." -- "Corexit is is four times more toxic than oil (oil is toxic at 11 ppm (parts per million),...
Citizens screaming at the top of their lungs that 'the show must go on' and damning every precaution by President Obama have doomed themselves to decades of loss and pain. Was it worth it? Were the parish Presidents politics so important that all caution was thrown to the wind? Seriously? Who is going to stop this mess now? How many more lives are going to be destroyed while lies are spun for the sake of power to conceal the truth? Where is the judge that stated the Executive Branch has no right for a moratorium? Is he going to save lives or ruin them?
...A report written by Anita George-Ares and James R. Clark (click here) for Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. entitled “Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Three Corexit Products: An Overview” (click here) states that “Corexit 9500, Corexit 9527, and Corexit 9580 have moderate toxicity to early life stages of fish, crustaceans and mollusks (LC50 or EC50 – 1.6 to 100 ppm*). It goes on to say that decreasing water temperatures in lab tests showed decreased toxicity, a lowered uptake of the dispersant. Unfortunately, we’re going to be seeing an increase in temperatures, not a decrease. Amongst the other caveats is that the study is species-specific, that other animals may be more severely affected, silver-sided fish amongst them.
Oil is toxic at 11 ppm while Corexit 9500 is toxic at only 2.61 ppm; Corexit 9500 is four times as toxic as the oil itself. Sure, a lot less of it is being introduced, but that’s still a flawed logical perspective, because it’s not a “lesser of two evils” scenario. BOTH are going into the ocean water....
While the 'experts' were trying to stop the oil from doing decades of permanent damage to pristine beaches that attracted tourism as an intricate part of the Gulf Coast economy, they were actually dooming the ocean to toxins throughout the water column that may never be able to 'dissipate' and will pollute the fisheries forever until it is manually removed.
Ask me if I am surprised that today the nightmare is only beginning. Short term 'feel good' feelings were an attempt to propagandize the liability for BP.
Oil spill dispersants don't disappear (click here)
When nearly 800,000 gallons of a chemical dispersant were injected into the oil gushing from the busted wellhead on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico during last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster, nobody knew for sure what would happen. Now, scientists are getting their first answers, and the results are mixed.
Tests for a key component of the chemical concoction reveal that the dispersant worked its way into the oil-laden plume in the deep ocean, and stayed in the deep ocean. But the chemical did not degrade as much as scientists thought it would....
Gulf Oil Spill: BP Trying To Hide Millions of Gallons of Toxic Oil? (click here)
May 3, 2010
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