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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Oil Leak Health Risks

According to the McClatchy article, BP's workers involved with the leak cleanup are inadequately trained with a 4 hour course, consequently they are experiencing illness from all of the toxic chemical exposure. They are not properly prepared or equipped to work in a toxic oil spill environment which includes the use of severe oil dispersants.

Call it adding misery to misery.

In addition the people that are living within range of the shoreline probably will also be exposed to a toxic chemical nightmare. I mean how would you like your children playing on an oil spill/chemical dispersant shoreline. Its a case where paradise turns into hell.

What is coming through more and more is that BP is solely about securing oil. BP appears to not have anything close to a sufficient and adequate way or method or technique for dealing with anything out of the norm. They are woefully ill prepared for emergencies.

McClatchy: BP 'systemic failure' endangers Gulf cleanup workers
...experts now estimate has spewed 37 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.


"The organizational systems that BP currently has in place, particularly those related to worker safety and health training, protective equipment, and site monitoring, are not adequate for the current situation or the projected increase in clean-up operations..."


Locals also worry about the effects of dispersants on children who'll be spending more time outside and in the water because they're already out of school for the summer.

5 comments:

Glynn Kalara said...

Remember this is all being caused because our Gov't's regulatory appart has been reduced to that of Nigeria or Gabon. In other words we are rapidly becoming a third world kleptocracy with a corrupt easily gamed and bought bureaucracy of careerists like Obama and Lisa Jackson and on and on and on. These people bend to the needs of the Industries they supposedly are hired to watch and regulate. Instead, they bend a knee and do the bidding of these mighty wealthy Corps. and many of these people then go on after Gov't jobs to great jobs in these same Industries. Why isn't there a law absolutely forbidding this? Because, the pols do the same thing.

Jim Sande said...

There's no laws because people think that corporations are good and working in the people's interests. The greed and power part is just something extra and less important. People have had training in how to respond positively to corporations through years and years of indoctrination - the role of commercials, media, and politicians. Plus there's the overall tendency in our society to be materialistic. SO the powerful are also role models. Its most college students dream to be the CEO of BP or some CEO somewhere. Its when all hell breaks loose that people start having fits and see first hand. Most people in America are breathing a sigh of relief because the oil spill did not happen in their backyard.

Glynn Kalara said...

"Most people in America are breathing a sigh of relief because the oil spill did not happen in their backyard." Not yet. Here along the coast we are not out of the woods on this one and everyone is tense watching this thing grow and spread. All of the World's Oceans are just one large puddle all connected so it's possible this disaster could effect us even though were thousand of miles away.

Jim Sande said...

Somehow the oil has to get filtered out of the water. There has to be a way to do this - a massive effort to clean the water.

Glynn Kalara said...

The good news is that crude oil remember is a "natural product" it's not some creation of man like the damn dispersants. Nature created it and nature can break it down. In 20 or 30 yrs. it's largely gone. In 100 yrs. totally. During WW2 millions of gallons of OIl were dumped intot he sea by burning sinking ships and it took 25 yrs. for it to de broken down. When I was a kid in the 50's and 60's we kept a jar of kerosene by the shower outside to clean your feet off from all the tar on the beach. By the 80's it was 99% gone and today it's very rare to see tar. Today what you see is massive amounts of plastic and some of this crap NEVER goes away totally it just breaks down into nano bit sized particles and becomes even more toxic. Some of these substances are said to be immortal and will be with the planet till the day the sun absorbs the earth 3 billion yrs. on!