Contrarian Pundit

Last Wednesday evening, the EPA directed BP to use less toxic dispersants on the Gulf oil spill within four days.  BP’s favorite dispersant, Corexit®, has been banned in the U.K. for over  a decade and is linked to respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney, blood, and reproductive disorders.  Approximately 700,000 gallons have already been poured into Gulf waters.

On Friday, BP told the EPA it would continue to use Corexit®, since it couldn’t find a reasonable alternative (despite news reports that more than 100,000 gallons of dispersant Sea-Brat 4 is available in Houston).  BP’s hubris in the face of the EPA’s order begs three questions: (1) What dispersant does BP use in Britain? (2) Who exactly is in charge of perhaps the greatest environmental catastrophe in our country’s history? (3) If BP is on sound legal footing, how did our government allow a foreign oil corporation to usurp its authority?

As New Orleans’ WDSU Channel 6 reports, the damages from BP’s use of Corexit® aren’t restricted to marine life:

More and more stories about sick fishermen are beginning to surface after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fishermen are working out in the Gulf — many of them all day, every day — to clean up the spill. They said they blame their ailments on the chemicals that BP is using.

One fisherman said he felt like he was going to die over the weekend.”I’ve been coughing up stuff,” Gary Burris said. “Your lungs fill up.”

Burris, a longtime fisherman who has worked across the Gulf Coast, said he woke up Sunday night feeling drugged and disoriented.”It was like sniffing gasoline or something, and my ears are still popping,” Burris said. “I’m coughing up stuff. I feel real weak, tingling feelings.”

Marine toxicologist Riki Ott said the chemicals used by BP can wreak havoc on a person’s body and even lead to death.”The volatile, organic carbons, they act like a narcotic on the brain,” Ott said. “At high concentrations, what we learned in Exxon Valdez from carcasses of harbor seals and sea otters, it actually fried the brain, (and there were) brain lesions.”

Burris managed to see a doctor, who told him his lungs looked like those of a three-packs-a-day smoker, even though Burris had never smoked in his life.

The fishermen are risking their lives for clean-up paychecks, because it’s unclear whether they’ll ever be able to make a living from their trade again.  Rest assured, these heroes will ultimately be rewarded with the same heartfelt thanks and compassion that we showered on 9/11 first responders.