OIL STOPS ON DAY 86

Oil stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, for the first time in nearly three months, as BP began testing the cap atop its stricken well, a critical step toward sealing the well permanently.

Oil Spill Workers Report Health Problems

"Within the past week, we've seen a number of workers hospitalized. That's new," said Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

More than a dozen workers have been treated at local medical centers for flu-like symptoms ranging from chest pain to dizziness,nausea, and headaches, presumably due to exposure to different chemicals emanating from the slick, according to news reports.

The Unified Command in Louisiana -- a coalition of government agencies that includes the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service -- last week called back to shore 125 boats helping with the clean-up after medical complaints from crew members.
"The reports that we've heard from hospitals and doctors have been [that the symptoms are due to] inhaled irritant exposure, but they've not gone so far as to say what exactly they think the responsible agent might be," Solomon said. "The workers are widely blaming the dispersants."

Dispersants are chemicals used for the oil clean-up. The solvent used after the massive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaska coast, for example, was limonene, which can cause skin inflammation and asthma, said Robert Emery, vice president for safety, health, environment and risk management at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

"There's no doubt that people are getting sick out there [in the Gulf of Mexico]," Emery said. "The key question is what is it that is causing them to get sick."
BP's Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico about 40 miles south of Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers and spewing an estimated 21 million to 45 million gallons of crude oil into the water.
BP and the U.S. Coast Guard have said dehydration, heat, food poisoning or other unrelated factors may have caused the workers' symptoms. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is investigating, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that "air quality levels for ozone and particulates are normal on the Gulf coastline for this time of year." But, the agency added, it has detected some "odor-causing pollutants associated with petroleum products along the coastline at low levels." These chemicals could cause headache, nausea and throat irritation.

There have been few studies that have examined the long-term health risks of exposure to oil. Brief contact with small amounts of light crude oil and dispersants aren't thought to be harmful, the AP reported. But, extended exposure to dispersants can cause central nervous system problems, or damage to the blood, the kidney, or the liver, and leave a metallic taste in the mouth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The unprecedented size and duration of this spill makes it unsettling, Solomon said.
"It's pretty much in every sense a historical spill," Solomon said. "Previous spills have all happened over a relatively short period of time and then the clean-up effort has mostly been on what's called weathered oil" -- oil that's been floating on the surface of water for some period of time.
"In this case, we still have fresh oil bubbling up from underwater, which is a completely different situation than has ever been seen before," she said. "Approximately 40% of crude oil evaporates within several hours of reaching the surface of the water. It ends up airborne. It's really a problem for people who are working out there, especially those closest to where oil is surfacing."

Clean-up workers are being advised to follow federal guidelines that recommend that anyone involved wear protective equipment such as gloves, safety glasses and clothing, the AP said.
BP CEO Tony Hayward has said the symptoms that workers are reporting -- dizziness, headaches, coughing -- could be due to any number of causes, including diesel fumes, exhaustion and heat from wearing Tyvek safety suits.

Oil Spill And Our Health. Should We Worry?

As we’re waiting for the full scale of environmental, economic and wildlife impacts from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to unfold, there’s a lot of speculation and unanswered questions going around about what this means for the health of people living and working in the region.
To help answer these questions, I’ve put together a three-part Q&A on what this means for human health. I’ll post the 3 parts of this Q&A over the course of the week, and in this first post I’ll answer some of the basic background health questions I’m hearing about the spill below. In later posts I’ll look at who’s at risk, and health tips for people working on the clean-up – stay tuned.

What’s actually in oil that could be hazardous to health?
Oil contains a mixture of chemicals. The main ingredients are various hydrocarbons, some of which can cause cancer (eg. the PAHs or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons); other hydrocarbons can cause skin and airway irritation. There are also certain volatile hydrocarbons called VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which can cause cancer and neurologic and reproductive harm. Oil also contains traces of heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, and lead.

How can these chemicals get into our bodies?
VOCs and some of the other hydrocarbons can be inhaled, causing lung problems and other health effects. Skin contact causes irritation and rashes. The oil will contaminate fish and shellfish, causing health risks from eating these foods that could persist for years.

What are the acute health effects from exposure to the oil?
Inhalation of oil vapors or aerosolized particles (from wind-blown waves), can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, irritation of the eyes and throat, and difficulty breathing.
People with asthma or other lung diseases could have serious exacerbations. High-dose inhalation (if people are very close to the vapors) may cause a chemical pneumonia known as “hydrocarbon pneumonia”, which can require hospital care. Direct skin contact can cause various kinds of rashes, including generalized skin irritation, or something known as “folliculitis” from oil-clogged skin pores.

What about if they’re burning the oil offshore?
Burning will release particulate matter, which is harmful to the lungs. To check on particulate matter levels in your area, check out the EPA AirNow website at: http://www.airnow.gov/. If the air is noticeably smoky, or if the levels of particulate matter are high on the EPA website, avoid any strenuous activities outdoors. For people with heart or lung disease, children, or the elderly: consider staying indoors in an air-conditioned room, and change the air-conditioner filter to make sure it is maximally effective.

How does this situation affect the shrimping/fishing industry in terms of the quality of our food?
Apart from the economic disaster to the industry, this spill poses a long-term health concern for the safety of the fish and shellfish. Contaminants in oil can persist for years and accumulate in the food chain, causing elevated cancer risks or neurological risks from exposure to heavy metals such as mercury.

Are there any health concerns associated with dispersants?
Dispersants are somewhat volatile and some will enter the air. Therefore it is really critical for clean-up workers and volunteers to wear personal protection equipment at all times when either applying the dispersant or working near where it has been applied. By the time the dispersants reach shore, they will probably be highly diluted and won’t pose a threat for communities, but this is something we’ll keep an eye on if they start using dispersants close to populations.

Oil Spill Basics

Oil Spill Basics

Yearly spillage Every year 100 million US gallons of oil spill. This is equal to 100 school gymnasiums: Typical school gymnasium = 45' X 45' X 66' = 133,650 cubic feet 1 cubic foot = 7.481 gallons Gym holds 999,387 gallons (almost 1 million gallons). The biggest spill ever occurred during the 1991 Persian Gulf war when about 240 million gallons spilled from oil terminals and tankers off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The second biggest spill occurred over a ten-month period (June 1979 - February 1980) when 140 million gallons spilled at the Ixtoc I well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico near Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. But even all the oil spilled during the Persian Gulf spill is only about 1/3 of what the US uses in one day! The Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska was approximately 11 million gallons. That spill was only about the 35th largest in the world, though it was the largest in the US. It came from a huge supertanker that was about the size of 15 gyms in length X 4 gyms wide X 2 gyms deep (which held 66 million gallons). Why does all that oil spill? We use a lot of oil and it needs to be transported. The US uses 710 million gallons per day. In fact, every 22 minutes, the US uses up what spilled in the Exxon Valdez spill. The world uses 2.73 billion gallons (2,730 gyms full) per day. Every day 31.5 billion gallons of oil are at sea being transported. But not all spills come from tankers. Some comes from storage tanks, pipelines, oil wells, tankers and vessels cleaning out tanks. What is all that oil used for? Fuel (for transportation and factories) Electricity generation Machinery Asphalt Heating Wax (crayons, candles) Medicines Ink Plastics Fertilizers Pesticides Paints/varnishes How does it spill? Accidents: often through carelessness Sometimes unavoidable events: weather, earthquakes Intentional spills: terrorists, war, vandals, dumping What happens to oil when it spills? Oil generally floats because it is lighter than water. A good experiment to do here is to add vegetable oil, which acts like crude oil, to food-colored water in a large, clear plastic soda bottle with a cap. Shake it and watch how the oil always settles on top. 30-40% evaporates in the first 24-48 hours; these are the most poisonous (toxic) portions, as well as the portions that are the most soluble, and flammable. Oil tends to float and spread out into a very thin film on the water surface...usually only about 0.1 mm thick...then spreads even thinner to a sheen, which is one tenth or one one-hundredth of this. Sheens are often seen as rainbow-like or silvery in puddles in parking lots. It is very rare for oil to sink. It needs to adhere to heavier particles such as sand, algae, or silt to sink. An exception is a kind of oil used for burning in electric utility plants. This oil can actually sink in water since it is heavier than water. What are the environmental impacts? These impacts are very often grossly exaggerated in the public media. Environmentalist groups have been notorious in spreading misinformation about environmental effects. Nevertheless, oil can have a significant impact on marine larvae, birds and mammals in particular, and to a lesser extent on fish. Some components of oil are toxic if exposure occurs within the first two days of a spill (1 part per million [ppm], i.e. one gallon in one million gallons, can be toxic to invertebrate larvae; 1000 ppm for fish). Oil on feathers hinders the water-repellancy of the bird. Oil on fur takes away its insulating capacities. What happens after a spill occurs? Response teams often protect sensitive areas with booms (floating barriers) and help oiled wildlife by cleaning birds and fur-bearing mammals with detergent. The most common cleanup techniques are outlined below: Containment and recovery: Surround the oil with booms and recover the oil (for cleaning and reuse) with skimmers. Skimmers separate oil from the water by: centripetal force -- water is heavier than oil and spins out further so the oil can be pumped out lifting oil on a conveyor belt off the water surface; or wringing out the oil that clings to oleophilic (oil-attracting) rope mops. This technique is the most widely used as it is least destructive, but it is only 10-15% efficient under even the best circumstances. Sorbents: Remove oil with absorbent sponges made from diaper-like substances. Some sorbents are made from natural materials -- straw, grasses, coconut husks, or wood chips. Dispersants: These are chemicals that act like detergents to break oil up into tiny droplets to dilute the oil's effect and to provide bite-sized bits for oil-eating bacteria that occur naturally, particularly in areas that have had a history of oil spillage. Burning: Burning is usually 95-98% efficient, but does cause black smoke. The smoke is not more toxic than if the oil were burned as intended in fuels. One gallon of oil burned this way creates the same pollutants as three logs in a fireplace or woodstove. Bioremediation: Enhancing natural biodegradation by natural oil-eating bacteria by providing them with needed fertilizers or oxygen. Shoreline cleanup: High-pressure hosing to rinse oil back into water to be skimmed up. This usually does more harm than good by driving the oil deeper into the beach and by killing every living thing on the beach. This was used extensively after the Exxon Valdez spill due to public and state pressure to make the beaches "look clean again," despite the known risks. Areas left alone to be weathered by winter storms were shown to be cleaner and harboring more life than those cleaned by high-pressure washing. (Short term aesthetic considerations should not override the more basic longer term ecological considerations in rehabilitating a beach.) Do nothing: Particularly in open ocean spills, cleanup is difficult and not efficient. Wave action and photo-oxidation (from sun) helps to break oil down. Who else might be affected by an oil spill? Fishing industry, resorts and recreation areas, water supplies for drinking and industry. What about prevention? Since cleanup after an oil spill is so ineffective and so difficult, and does not always fully rehabilitate affected areas, prevention is most important. Effective prevention plans might include: improved piloting; training of ship and tanker crews training of storage and pipeline facility crews enforcing pollution rules at sea building more spill-resistant vessels maintaining vessels and pipelines preparing for spill response through effective training, planning (contingency planning), and practice drills.

Wildlife Dying?

The number of birds being treated for oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill is rising.

But, as with sea turtles and dolphins, the vast majority of dead birds found so far don't show signs of oil.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says 62 oiled birds and three oiled sea turtles have been rescued from the Gulf and in states affected by the oil spill.
It says another 478 dead birds, 224 dead sea turtles and 25 dead marine mammals have been found.
It says that at least 90 of the birds did have oil on their feathers or bodies, but at least 338 don't have any visible oil.
Authorities said earlier that one dolphin and one sea turtle had oil on their bodies, and officials didn't know whether it got there before or after death.

National Wildlife Federation Fights Back.......

The money donated to the National Wildlife Federation through response to the oil spill will support the following efforts:

1. Development and deployment of the National Wildlife Federation's Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams, a volunteer network that is being organized to monitor the coast for wildlife impacted by the oil spill. Beyond the initial surveillance needed, this effort will then shift to long term volunteer restoration programs. For more, visit: http://www.nwf.org/oilspillvolunteers

2. Restoration of vulnerable nesting and breeding grounds, as well as other delicate ecosystems found throughout the Gulf Coast for water birds, sea turtles and other animals.

3. Public education about the oil spill and its impacts on wildlife, including our online efforts at http://www.nwf.org/oilspill and informing the press and others about the impacts the oil spill is having on coastal communities and wildlife.

4. Policy work at the national and state level to support restoration of habitat in the Gulf Coast and better protection of our waters and coastlines.

For more about the National Wildlife Federation's efforts go to: http://www.nwf.org/oilspill