BP, Governments Downplay Public Health Risk From Oil and Dispersants whilst Broome hosts oil spill response training

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riki-ott/the-big-lie-bp-government_b_638369.html

William Rea, MD, who founded the Environmental Health Center-Dallas, treated a number of sick Exxon Valdez cleanup workers. He once told me, "When you have sick people and sick animals, and they are sick because of the same chemical, that's the strongest evidence possible that that chemical is a problem."

It's not just skin rashes and blisters. At community forums, I commonly hear from adults and children with persistent coughs, stuffy sinuses, headaches, burning eyes, sore throats, ear bleeds, and fatigue. These symptoms are consistent across the four Gulf states that I have visited. Further, the symptoms of respiratory problems, central nervous system distress, and skin irritation are consistent with overexposure to crude oil through the two primary routes of exposure: inhalation and skin contact.

Most distressing to me are stories about sick children. "Dose plus host makes the poison," I learned in toxicology. A small child is at risk of breathing a higher dose of contaminants per body weight than an adult. Children, pregnant women, people with compromised or stressed immune systems like cancer survivors and asthma sufferers, and African Americans are more at risk from oil and chemical exposure - the latter because they are prone to sickle cell anemia and 2-butoxyethanol can cause, or worsen, blood disorders.

Public officials have failed to sound an alarm about the public health threat because three federal agencies - DHHS, EPA, and OSHA - cannot find any unsafe levels of oil in air or water. Perhaps the federal air and water standards are not stringent enough to protect the public from oil pollution. Our federal laws are outdated and do not protect us from the toxic threat from oil - now widely recognized in the scientific and medical community.

BP is still in the dark ages on oil toxicity. BP officials stress that, by the time oil gets to shore, it is "weathered" and missing the highly volatile compounds like the carcinogenic benzene, among others. BP fails to mention the threat from dispersed oil, ultrafine particles (PAHs), and chemical dispersants, which include industrial solvents and proprietary compounds, many hazardous to humans.

If oil was so nontoxic, then why are the spill response workers giving hazardous waste training? Our federal government should stop pretending that everything is okay. What isn't safe for workers isn't safe for the general public either.
On the 1st of July is was reported by the local Kimberley ABC that a pecial training sessions are to be held in Broome to help ensure local authorities know how to respond in the event of an oil spill.

The Department of Transport's oil spill response team will host three days of training this week at Broome Port for port workers, government officers and members of the private sector. Appropriately,participants will be taught how to quickly assess spills that reach the coast and how to use equipment, such as containment booms, to limit their spread.

Coordinator Matt Verney says the team is able to draw on its experiences with last year's Montara oil spill."All the training is an opportunity to get the latest information and try out new equipment, and also put in place the lessons learnt from other incidents, so we're best prepared next time we do have an incident," he said.

Redhand would like to suggest that Matt Verney reads the article in full at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riki-ott/the-big-lie-bp-government_b_638369.html and if at all possible visit the Gulf of Mexico and offer them his expertise because they sure could use it. The fact of the matter is once oil flows death follows, economic, environmental and social structures disintegrates.