Gulf oil spill is public health risk, environmental scientists warn

[kpete]

Source: The Guardian


Gulf oil spill is public health risk, environmental scientists warn

• Pollution could do lasting damage to locals' health
• BP's 'top kill' attempt to stop flow enters third day

Prolonged exposure to crude oil and chemical dispersants is a public health danger, environmental scientists warned yesterday as BP spent a third day trying to initiate a "top kill" operation to cap the ruptured well on the sea bed.

The oil firm moved to a second stage of the procedure by injecting material such as golf balls, shredded tyres and rope into the well. But John Pack, a spokesman for BP, said it would not be clear until tomorrow if it would work. "We have never said there is a deadline or a schedule," he said. "We need to take this pretty slowly, but everything is going according to plan."

BP's beleaguered chief executive, Tony Hayward, yesterday drastically scaled upwards his assessment of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "This is clearly an environmental catastrophe. There is no two ways about it," he told CNN. "It's clear that we are dealing with a very significant environmental crisis and catastrophe." In an interview with the Guardian two weeks ago, he had described the oil spill as "tiny" relative to the size of the gulf.

"The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume," he said then.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/28/bp-gulf-oil-spill-pollution

.................

BP 'systemic failure' endangers Gulf cleanup workers
By Marisa Taylor and Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers

Federal regulators complained in a scathing internal memo about "significant deficiencies" in BP's handling of the safety of oil spill workers and asked the Coast Guard to help pressure the company to address a litany of concerns. The memo reveals the Obama administration's growing concerns about potential health and safety problems posed by the oil spill and its inability to force BP to respond to them.
» read more
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/28/95049/bps-systemic-failure-harms-workers.html

[fascisthunter]

1. privatized profits, socialized health risks... nice huh?

[BeFree]

2. No shit? Really?

Then what the fuck are we doing?

What the fuck is the government doing?

Is Palin really all that important?

Is Obama's political future all that important?

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. Well, duh!

I'm glad I live 2,000 miles away.

This thing is like Chernobyl. The health risks will be there forever.

[blindpig]

4. k&r

[Fire1]

5. Ya think? n/t

[flyarm]

6. Thank you so much KPETE for being a truthteller..I truely appreciate you and your threads!!

And as a Gulf resident I thank you!

fly

[Downwinder]

7. Humans, an expendable commodity. n/t