BP dispersants 'causing sickness'

Investigation by Al Jazeera online correspondent finds toxic illnesses linked to BP oil dispersants along Gulf coast.
Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 29 Oct 2010 16:01 GMT
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Denise Rednour of Long Beach, Mississippi, has been sick with chemical poisoning since July [Erika Blumenfeld]
Two-year-old  Gavin Tillman of Pass Christian, Mississippi, has been diagnosed with  severe upper respiratory, sinus, and viral infections. His temperature  has reached more than 39 degrees since September 15, yet his sicknesses  continue to worsen.
His parents, some doctors, and environmental  consultants believe the child's ailments are linked to exposure to  chemicals spilt by BP during its Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
Gavin's  father, mother, and cousin, Shayleigh, are also facing serious health  problems. Their symptoms are being experienced by many others living  along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
Widely banned toxic dispersants
Injected  with at least 4.9 million barrels of oil during the BP oil disaster of  last summer, the Gulf has suffered the largest accidental marine oil  spill in history. Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at  least 1.9 million gallons of widely banned toxic dispersants (one that  has been banned in the UK), which according to chemist Bob Naman, create  an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil. And dispersed,  weathered oil continues to flow ashore daily.
Naman, who works at  the Analytical Chemical Testing Lab in Mobile, Alabama, has been  carrying out studies to search for the chemical markers of the  dispersants BP used to both sink and break up its oil.
According  to Naman, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from this toxic mix are  making people sick. PAHs contain compounds that have been identified as  carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic.
Fisherman across the  four states most heavily affected by the oil disaster - Louisiana,  Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida - have reported seeing BP spray  dispersants from aircraft and boats offshore.
"The dispersants  are being added to the water and are causing chemical compounds to  become water soluble, which is then given off into the air, so it is  coming down as rain, in addition to being in the water and beaches of  these areas of the Gulf," Naman added.
"I’m scared of what I'm  finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit  [dispersants] and generate other cyclic compounds that aren’t good. Many  have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an  unprecedented environmental catastrophe."
Commercial fisherman Donny Matsler also lives in Alabama.
"I  was with my friend Albert, and we were both slammed with exposure,"  Matsler explained of his experience on August 5, referring to toxic  chemicals he inhaled that he believes are associated with BP's  dispersants. "We both saw the clumps of white bubbles on the surface  that we know come from the dispersed oil."
Gruesome symptoms
"I  started to vomit brown, and my pee was brown also," Matsler, a Vietnam  veteran who lives in Dauphin Island, said. "I kept that up all day. Then  I had a night of sweating and non-stop diarrhea unlike anything I’ve  ever experienced."
He was also suffering from skin rashes, nausea, and a sore throat.
At  roughly the same time Matsler was exposed, local television station  WKRG News 5 took a water sample from his area to test for dispersants.  The sample literally exploded when it was mixed with an organic solvent  separating the oil from the water.
Naman, the chemist who  analyzed the sample, said: "We think that it most likely happened due to  the presence of either methanol or methane gas or the presence of the  dispersant Corexit."
"I'm still feeling terrible," Matsler told  Al Jazeera recently. "I'm about to go to the doctor again right now. I'm  short of breathe, the diarrhea has been real bad, I still have  discoloration in my urine, and the day before yesterday, I was coughing  up white foam with brown spots in it."
As for Matsler's physical  reaction to his exposure, Hugh Kaufman, an EPA whistleblower and  analyst, has reported this of the effects of the toxic dispersants:
"We  have dolphins that are hemorrhaging. People who work near it are  hemorrhaging internally. And that’s what dispersants are supposed to  do..."
By the middle of last summer, the Alabama Department of  Public Health said that 56 people in Mobile and Baldwin counties had  sought treatment for what they believed were oil disaster-related  illnesses.
A dispersed oil tar ball in Orange Beach, Alabama [Erika Blumenfeld]
"The  dispersants used in BP's draconian experiment contain solvents such as  petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol," Dr. Riki Ott, a  toxicologist, marine biologist, and Exxon Valdez survivor, told Al  Jazeera.
"Solvents dissolve oil, grease, and rubber," she  continued, "Spill responders have told me that the hard rubber impellors  in their engines and the soft rubber bushings on their outboard motor  pumps are falling apart and need frequent replacement."
"Given  this evidence, it should be no surprise that solvents are also  notoriously toxic to people, something the medical community has long  known," Dr. Ott added.
"In 'Generations at Risk', medical doctor  Ted Schettler and others warn that solvents can rapidly enter the human  body. They evaporate in air and are easily inhaled, they penetrate skin  easily, and they cross the placenta into fetuses. For example, 2-  butoxyethanol (in Corexit) is a human health hazard substance; it is a  fetal toxin and it breaks down blood cells, causing blood and kidney  disorders."
Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are  inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact. Health impacts include  headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory  system damage, skin sensitization, hypertension, central nervous system  depression, neurotoxic effects, genetic mutations, cardiac arrhythmia,  and cardiovascular damage.
Even the federal government has taken  precautions for its employees. US military officials decided to reroute  training flights in the Gulf region in order to avoid oil and dispersant  tainted-areas.
Growing number of cases
And Al Jazeera is finding a growing number of illnesses across the Gulf Coast.
Denise  Rednour of Long Beach, Mississippi, has been taking walks on Long Beach  nearly every day since the disaster began on April 20, and she is  dealing with constant health issues.
"I've had health problems  since the middle of July," she said. "At the end of August, I came home  from walking on the beach and for four days had bloody, mucus-filled  diarrhea, dry heaves, and blood running out of my ear."
Karen  Hopkins, in Grand Isle, Louisiana, has been sick since the middle of  May. "I started feeling exhausted, disoriented, dizzy, nauseous, and my  chest was burning and I can’t breath well at times," she said.
Dean  Blanchard, who runs a seafood distribution business in Grand Isle, is  Hopkins' boss. He too is experiencing similar symptoms.
"They  [BP] are using us like lab rats," he explained, "I'm thinking of moving  to Costa Rica. When I leave here I feel better. When I come back I feel  bad again. Feeling tired, coughing, sore throat, burning eyes,  headaches, just like everyone around here feels."
Lorrie Williams  of Ocean Springs says her son's asthma has "gotten exponentially worse  since BP released all their oil and dispersants into the Gulf."
"A  plane flew over our house recently and sprayed what I believe are  dispersants. A fine mist covered everything, and it smelled like pool  chemicals. Noah is waking up unable to breath, and my husband has head  and chest congestion and burning eyes," Williams said.
Like  others, when Lorrie's family left the area for a vacation, they  immediately felt better. But upon coming home, their symptoms returned.
Wilma  Subra, a chemist in New Iberia, Louisiana, recently tested the blood of  eight BP cleanup workers and residents in Alabama and Florida.  "Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene and Hexane are volatile organic chemicals that  are present in the BP Crude Oil," Subra said,
"The blood of all  three females and five males had chemicals that are found in the BP  Crude Oil. The acute impacts of these chemicals include nose and throat  irritation, coughing, wheezing, lung irritation, dizziness,  light-headedness, nausea and vomiting."
Indications of exposure
Subra  explained that there has been long enough exposure so as to create  chronic impacts, that include "liver damage, kidney damage, and damage  to the nervous system. So the presence of these chemicals in the blood  indicates exposure."
Testing by Subra has also revealed PAHs present "in coastal soil sediment, wetlands, and in crab, oyster and mussel tissues."
Trisha Springstead, is a registered nurse of 36 years who lives and works in Brooksville, Florida.
"What  I'm seeing are toxified people who have been chemically poisoned," she  said, "They have sore throats, respiratory problems, neurological  problems, lesions, sores, and ulcers. These people have been poisoned  and they are dying. Drugs aren’t going to help these people. They need  to be detoxed."
Chemist Bob Naman described the brownish, rubbery  tar balls that are a product of BP's dispersed oil that continue to  wash up on beaches across the Gulf:
"Those are the ones kids are  picking up and playing with and breathing the fumes that come off them  when you crush them in your hand. These will affect anyone who comes  into contact with it. You could have an open wound and this goes  straight in. Women have a lot more open mucus membranes and they are  getting sicker than men. They are bleeding from their vagina and anus.  Small kids are bleeding from their ears. This stuff is busting red blood  cells."
Dr Ott said: "People are already dying from this… I’m  dealing with three autopsies' right now. I don’t think we’ll have to  wait years to see the effects like we did in Alaska, people are dropping  dead now. I know two people who are down to 4.75 per cent of their lung  capacity, their heart has enlarged to make up for that, and their  esophagus is disintegrating, and one of them is a 16-year-old boy who  went swimming in the Gulf."