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Volunteer with the Emerald Coastkeeper, Ryan Heffernan, plunged into the ocean to recover a bag of oily wreckage, off Santa Rosa Sound. She had asked BP’s HazMat-trained workers to do it. She was politely told, "We can't go in the ocean. It's contaminated."
Ryan had to be treated by a local doctor for skin rash on her legs. A day earlier she had been swimming in the same water.
All the HazMat trainers on the beach had been given hazardous waste training. There were 5 HazMat tents, plus around 24 HazMat workers on the Pensacola Beach, Florida. They wore yellow over-boots duct-taped to their long pants' legs to reduce risk of contact with contaminated water.
People were cheerfully diving into the ‘contaminated’
From Florida to Louisiana, people are reporting blisters and skin rashes, after going into the ocean. As dispersed oil, covered in chemical dispersants, are in the water column, not all the oil washing ashore is able to be seen.
Complaints being reported from people across all four Gulf States are headaches, burning eyes, sore throats, stuffy sinuses, with persistent coughs, ear bleeds and fatigue. The symptoms of central nervous system distress, respiratory problems and skin irritation are aligned with overexposure to crude oil.
Although, the scientific and medical community widely understand the toxic risk from crude oil, officials have sounded no alarm of any threat to public health. Three federal agencies - DHHS, EPA and OSHA - cannot find any unsafe levels of oil in the air or water.
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. BP officials emphasize that, by the time oil comes ashore shore, it is "weathered" and missing the highly volatile compounds such as carcinogenic benzene.
Oil workers at the spill site have suffered various health problems due to crude oil exposure.
The burn off fires, though an easy and cheap fix to the oil problem, discharge volumes of toxic gases, of carbon monoxide, toluene, sulfur dioxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds of benzene, nitrogen oxides, xylene and ethyl benzene.
The burn sites are well beyond the Environmental Protection Agency's jurisdiction, as they are fifty miles offshore. No formal air quality monitoring occurs. Nearly 5 million gallons of oil have been burned at temperatures well above 2,000 degrees.
BP asserts it is exchanging the leaking cap with a tighter one and a skimming super oil tanker has eventually been sent to the oil spill location.
Bp confesses it had not used standard industry procedure at any of its U.S.A wells, including the high –pressure Deepwater Horizon well. Following the catastrophic 1988 Piper Alpha oil rig explosion, in which 167 people died, the safety case was created in England.
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