The Franklin Files

Re: 71 people sick in the Gulf, 21 of those from the general public


Likely oil disaster health problems
We can hope that the health effects will be slight and will not extend into the community at large, but there are logical reasons to be concerned. Crude oil contains a mix of compounds hazardous to human health, including benzenes, which are known cancer-causing agents, and others that are toxic to the brain and central nervous system, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It can also contain poisonous heavy metals.

We know that inhaling oil vapors or aerosolized particles can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, irritation of the eyes and throat, and difficulty breathing. High-dose inhalation may cause chemical pneumonia, which can require hospital care. People with asthma or other lung diseases could have these conditions exacerbated by oil fumes. Some of the volatile chemicals in crude oil have been linked to miscarriage, low birth weight, and preterm birth. Direct skin contact with crude oil can cause various kinds of skin rashes and possibly skin cancers.

Oil is not the only health concern. The manufacturer of Corexit, the dispersant being used to clean-up the oil, warns against contact with eyes, skin, or lungs. This product is somewhat volatile and some formulations contain the carcinogen 2-butoxyethanol, so it is critical for clean-up workers and volunteers to wear personal protection equipment at all times when applying the dispersant or working near where it has been applied. It is possible that dispersants will be diluted by the time they reach the shore and won’t pose a threat for communities, but there is no certainty of this. The highly dispersed oil particles that remain either at sea in large plumes, or on the ocean floor, may pose an ongoing and unseen threat to sea life, including those which may enter the human food chain.

There are two key reasons why the federal government must have total responsibility for the health issues around this disaster: We cannot trust BP, and we need a long-term, coordinated response.

We cannot trust BP
We should not entrust an oil company to oversee the health effects and clean up of this massive disaster. BP’s long record of breaking environmental, safety, fraud, and antitrust laws clearly demonstrates that it should not have control of any aspect of overseeing the health implications of the disaster it created.

Recent media reports have shown how pervasive these problems are. BP’s own internal investigations highlighted to senior BP managers that the company repeatedly flouted safety and environmental rules, pressured employees not to report problems, and cut short or delayed inspections to reduce production costs. No effective action was ever taken, and the result is an atrocious record of accidents, environmental contamination, and employee deaths. The Center for Public Integrity reported that just two BP refineries have accounted for 97 percent of all safety violations found in the refining industry over the past three years.

Two types of problems have already arisen in BP’s handling of the health effects of the gulf oil spill. First, BP has trained workers in the cleanup effort and says it provides protective gear for workers directly handling oil, but there are accounts and photos of people working without such protection. Second, BP has reportedly taken hundreds of air and water samples and has said that all levels were within federal safety standards. But BP won’t make the data publicly available.

Viewed in this light, BP’s claims that “we will make this right” somehow ring false.

We need a long-term, coordinated response
There are a host of federal and state agencies involved in the cleanup operations. All of them are involved in collecting information and data, some of it specifically health-related, some of it tangentially so. This work needs to be coordinated to ensure that nothing important is missed, and that all relevant data is collected, assessed, and made publicly available in a timely and consumer-friendly fashion.

There is a paucity of data about the long-term human health effects of oil spills and their cleanup. It’s time to remedy that situation and have a well-coordinated regional and national public health effort to assess the health effects.

The need for better data and a coordinated response is highlighted by several findings:


Participation in clean-up activities of the Prestige oil spill off the coast of Spain in 2002 resulted in prolonged respiratory symptoms lasting one to two years after exposure.



[link to www.americanprogress.org]