"Leaked oil could cause long-term health woes; Researchers urge vigilance in gulf" by Michelle Fay Cortez, Bloomberg News | August 17, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS — Gulf Coast residents and crews cleaning up some of the 206 million gallons of oil that gushed into the gulf from a broken
Gina Solomon, director of the University of California, San Francisco’s occupational environmental medicine residency program. “The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is well known as an ecological disaster. What is less known is the risk to human health caused by oil contamination.’’
Take a trip up to Alaska and ask them.
The researchers examined the components of crude oil, the chemicals used to disperse it, and the compounds created when it is burned away....
Residents, volunteers, and workers should not fish in off-limits areas, eat fish with an oily smell, or touch contaminated water or tar balls, Solomon said in a telephone interview. Solomon, who spent several weeks in the region evaluating the risks, said protective equipment and common sense are needed.
Cleanup of the oil that gushed into the water from BP’s Macondo well after an April 20 explosion is still under way in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida’s panhandle....
More than 300 people, mainly cleanup workers, needed medical care in the initial days after the spill, the researchers said....
It is 9/11 all over again.
The extent of the danger isn’t known because the long-term health consequences from previous spills haven’t been documented, she said.
“There is really pathetically insufficient information in the scientific literature about previous oil spills,’’ she said. “This time it’s going to be important to do it right and do the follow-up studies of health issues, so we know what can be attributed to this spill.’’
Now the authorities are saying we don't know?
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This is ALL about LIMITING BP LIABILITY and keeping the slick off the government!
"5 scientists insist most oil is still in gulf" by Kim Chipman, Bloomberg News | August 18, 2010
WASHINGTON — A group of scientists says as much as 79 percent of
Most of the oil that leaked from BP’s Macondo well from April 20 to July 15 is beneath the water’s surface, five scientists concluded in a memo made public Monday. The researchers, who include Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia in Athens, say they drew upon the US government’s study while reaching different conclusions.
The Obama administration’s Aug. 4 report indicated that almost three-fourths of the crude that leaked has disappeared or soon will be eaten by bacteria. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has said at least half of the oil released is “completely gone.’’
Chemist Dana Wetzel said the administration’s conclusion felt like the “closing credits of a movie.’’
“It’s like they were saying ‘the end,’ ’’ Wetzel, program manager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., said in an interview last week. “I’d say we have just gotten through setting up the plot.’’
In the hopes the story would go away.
Spokesmen at the White House, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Coast Guard didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Charles Hopkinson, a University of Georgia marine scientist and one of the five researchers, said plumes of oil dispersed underwater remain a threat.
Yeah, the chemicals just sank the stuff.
“One major misconception is that oil that has dissolved into water is gone and, therefore, harmless,’’ he said in a statement released Monday. “The oil is still out there, and it will likely take years to completely degrade. We are still far from a complete understanding of what its impacts are.’’
Other scientists agree with the government that the oil has largely dissipated.
“I don’t think it’s still lurking out there,’’ said Edward Overton, an environmental chemist and professor emeritus at Louisiana State University, last week.
“The Gulf is incredible in its resiliency and ability to clean itself up,’’ said Overton, who served as a technical reviewer for the administration’s report. “I think we are going to be flabbergasted by the little amount of damage that has been caused by this spill.’’
And keep those government grants coming, 'eh?
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The scientists who said that as much as 79 percent of the oil is still in the Gulf of Mexico said their estimates don’t include oil known to have washed into coastal wetlands because such crude is too difficult to measure, according to the memo, dated Aug. 11 and written by Hopkinson.
President Obama and administration officials have emphasized positive news about the Gulf region since the flow of oil from the biggest US spill was halted.
Obama and his family traveled to Florida’s Gulf coast on Saturday in a bid to provide the region with an economic boost. The president, who took a swim with daughter Sasha, said beaches along the coast are clean and open for business and the seafood is safe.But WHERE did he take that swim?
Related: Slow Saturday Special: FDA's Gulf Coast Feast
I just lost my appetite.
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Also see:
Fisherman and Families know Gulf Seafood is unsafe, DEMAND Dispersants stop being sprayed!
“Fishermen do not want to lose our credibility or deliver contaminated seafood to market and make people sick.” – Kathy Birren
Corexit Is Being Sprayed at Night, Even Now
Yes, the GOOD PEOPLE of the GULF COAST and our FELLOW CITIZENS care about us; the government does not!
NEW ORLEANS — The government’s point man on the Gulf oil spill said yesterday that he is no longer giving a timeline for completing the final stages of plugging BP’s runaway well....
Then it HASN'T BEEN PLUGGED!
Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said he doesn’t want to give timelines anymore because if he has to change them, that could cause a credibility problem....
Oh, it is WAY TOO LATE for that, Thad!
The government's credibility disappeared with the oil.
Also yesterday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco responded to warnings from independent researchers who insist that the oil spill is a bigger mess than the government has reported and that a lot of crude is lurking deep below the surface.
Oh, this ought to be good!
At the White House Aug. 4, Lubchenco said that about 74 percent of the oil had been captured, burned, skimmed, evaporated, dissolved, or dispersed. She asserted that the remaining 26 percent of the oil was on or just below the surface, had washed ashore, or been collected from the shore, or was buried in sand and sediments.
Lubchenco said yesterday that she stands by the conclusions in the government’s report."It should be pointed out that this is the same National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that was caught rigging their temperature data to support the global warming agenda." -- Wake the Flock Up
And no, she can not smell her hair on fire.
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That agenda-pushing photo-op is disgusting.
Related: NOAA Hoarding Key Data On Oil Spill Damage
Satellite Failure Means Decade of Global Warming Data Doubtful
Caught in the center of the controversy is the beleaguered taxpayer funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s Program Coordinator, Chuck Pistis has now confirmed that the fast spreading story on the respected climate skeptic blog is true.
However, NOAA spokesman, Program Coordinator, Chuck Pistis declined to state how long the fault might have gone undetected. Nor would the shaken spokesman engage in speculation as to the damage done to the credibility of a decade’s worth of temperature readings taken from the problematic ‘NOAA-16’ satellite."
No ah way I am trusting NOAA.
Related:
Who cares? When can we start drilling again?
"Offshore drilling to undergo tighter review; US halts waivers based on old data; Well development expected to slow" by John M. Broder, New York Times | August 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said yesterday that it would require significantly more environmental review before approving new offshore drilling permits, ending a practice in which government regulators essentially rubber-stamped potentially hazardous deepwater projects like BP’s blown-out well.
Related: Gulf Oil Overseer Sees Smoke From Pipe
The administration has come under sharp criticism for granting
I guess they have settled on the number 206, readers.
And HOW WE HAVE ALL FORGOTTEN that it is still a CRIME SCENE!
The more stringent environmental reviews are part of a wave of new regulation and legislation that promises to fundamentally remake an industry that has operated hand-in-glove with its government overseers for decades.
Many oil industry officials worry that the new environmental, safety, technical, and financial requirements will drive some companies out of business, discourage future exploration, and worsen the nation’s dependence on imported oil.
You know, we are TIRED of hearing COMPLAINTS from the PRICE-GOUGING, BILLIONS in PROFITS per QUARTER oil comapnies, 'kay?
The highly competitive oil industry has always operated under tremendous cost and time pressures; the new rules will probably slow down the development of new wells while raising costs.
And even if it doesn't they will tell us it did so they can boost their profits. Everyone knows the oil market is manipulated.
Bruce H. Vincent, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the industry fears that the BP accident will be a turning point for oil exploration the way the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 contributed to a virtual 30-year moratorium on nuclear plant construction.
Well, it HAS BEEN the GOVERNMENT'S CHERNOBYL!!!
“Let’s hope it’s not our Three Mile Island,’’ said Vincent, who is also president of
But we can afford another Gulf gusher?
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Permits for BP’s Macondo well were based on exemptions written in 1981 and 1986.
The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued hundreds of these exemptions in recent years to reduce the paperwork burden for oil companies seeking new wells and government bureaucrats.
Hell, they let them write the safety reports!
As a result, there was no meaningful plan in place to cope with the BP oil spill and its impact on aquatic life and Gulf Coast shorelines....
Shrimpers returned to Louisiana waters yesterday for the first commercial season since the BP disaster, uncertain what oil may still be in the water and what price they might get for their catch if consumers worry about possible lingering effects from the spill.
Perhaps the biggest fear is that some fisherman might try to sell oil-contaminated shrimp and scare consumers away again after prices crashed once already this summer....
No, I am not worried about that.
What I am worried about is government and MSM lying about it.
And maybe, just maybe, there is hope for them?
"Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution researchers have mapped a snaking, 22-mile-long underwater oil plume from the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, work they say provides strong evidence that oil from the disaster could remain trapped deep in the ocean for a prolonged period.
The study published yesterday is based on sensitive measurements in late June, and the findings contrast with recent statements by top government officials that most of the oil from the world’s largest marine spill was gone or rapidly degrading...
And we KNOW WHO WINS that argument!
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"Toxic oil levels found in key Gulf breeding zone, scientists say
"Obama lied when he declared the Gulf "Open for Business". He staged a fake swim photo-op, not actually in the Gulf, to sell everyone on the idea that the gulf waters are safe to swim in and the food is safe to eat. He did that, not for the benefit of the people of the Gulf, but to help his huge campaign donor BP and to try to make the issue vanish from the public awareness in time for the November Elections.
In other words, Obama has no problems letting you eat poisoned food for the sake of a few more votes! Monsters do not come any more obvious than this!" -- Wake the Flock Up
