Coast Guard Photos Show Spill Workers Without Protective Gear

[kpete]

Source: ProPublica

Coast Guard Photos Show Spill Workers Without Protective Gear

by Sasha Chavkin
ProPublica, 5 minutes ago

Contractors work to clean the beaches in Gavleston without all of the required safety gear on July 11, 2010. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Prentice Danner)

There's something missing in the Coast Guard's latest PR photos of oil spill cleanup workers: protective gear.

No less than three items required for beach cleaning operations <1> by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration -- coveralls, rubber boots, and in one case, gloves -- are absent in pictures of workers cleaning potentially oiled debris <2> from beaches in Galveston, Texas on Sunday.

The photos, first noted by a Facebook group that advocates health protections <3> for cleanup workers, were taken by a Coast Guard Petty Officer and posted to the agency's Visual Information Gallery. A caption describes the workers as "contractors working to clean the beaches in Galveston."




Read more: http://www.propublica.org/article/coast-guard-photos-show-spill-workers-without-protective-gear

[Bobbieo]

1. This is absolutely disgusting!!! How long before we will be reading about the illnesses

affecting the beach cleanup crews - Then again, will be reading about them?

[dflprincess]

2. And OSHA is doing... what?

Worker safety is one area the administration could really be doing something about with the spill. Especially after all the concern expressed for safety when the 29 miners were killed.

And no, Bobbieo, we won't be reading about them. Their illnesses and deaths will be covered up.

[Bobbieo]

3. I saw a photo of the sores on a woman.s leg th other nite on DU from merely walking in water to

to retrieve a plastic bag on a Florida beach.

In my 8 decades of life, I have had so many years of skin allergies and contact dematitis episodes that I would not be caught dead on a Gulf beach. These workers are literally risking their lives just like the Navajo uranium workers did for some 20 years during the Cold War.

I would love to take those BP CEO bastards and dunk them in oil soaked, chemcial filled Gulf water.

[TheMadMonk]

4. Personally, if I were on the shovel, my gloves would be in my back poket too.

He has them, he's just not using them where their only effect would be to cause excessive sweating and softened skin (with a damned good chance of blisters.)

Boots? What they have on is good enough protection above the waterline, impossible to clean, (looks like sueded leather) but adequate protection nonetheless. Ditto the coveralls, they're going to ruin some perfectly good clothing, but a paper suit is not going to offer any great additional protection on top of denim.

If they were down in the sloppy stuff then what they are wearing would most certainly be criminally inadequate. For where they are and what they are photographed doing, it's fine, and won't leave the workers with their hands and feet swimming in sweat.

[destes]

5. Galveston?

Haven't heard anything about oil spills in Galveston. Are your sources viable?

[EFerrari]

6. Unfortunately, ProPublica is very solid. Here's a story out of Houston:

http://www.khou.com/news/local/New-tests-Galveston-tar-balls-were-from-Deepwater-Horizon-spill-98333979.html

[eowyn_of_rohan]

7. BP forbids use of respirators THEN dumps this sludge in landfills

If their "clean up crew" doesn't wear respirators, it lessens the public perception of the toxicity of the sludge ... THEN when BeeePee throws this crap in our landfills we won't complain as loudly?

[intheflow]

8. More like, if the cleanup workers do get sick

and die from lack of protection, there'll be no witnesses to testify against BP if and when any health litigation against BP finally winds its way through the court system. x(