CDC says drinking a cup of oil won't hurt you...Rueters

[maryjk_99]

_http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L6EC20100622

Clean-up workers risk health problems from oil spill
By Emma Ashburn

WASHINGTON | Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:47pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Workers struggling in the heat to clean up oil from the ruptured BP well in the Gulf of Mexico risk short-term lung, liver, and kidney damage from fumes, experts said on Tuesday.

Studies of the health effects after seven supertanker spills showed that clean-up crews had suffered short-term health problems from volatile organic compounds emitted by the oil, the experts told an Institute of Medicine hearing in New Orleans.

Protective gear helps, but the workers usually take it off in the summer heat of the Gulf, they said.

"You really are talking about a triangle of heat, chemical exposure, and then the behavior changes that you see as a result," said Linda McCauley, dean of Emory University's School of Nursing in Atlanta.

"Exertional heat stroke is our critical concern," added Thomas Bernard of the University of South Florida.

The April 20 spill is the worst in U.S. history and oil is still pouring into the Gulf. Workers in boats are trying to skim, siphon and soak up the oil, and are deploying booms to try to delay its drift to shore.

Fisheries in contaminated areas has been closed and oil is washing up onto beaches and into fragile marshes.

Earlier on Tuesday a U.S. federal judge overturned the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater drilling, granting a request by more than a dozen oil services companies [ID:nLDE65L1NA]

Various government departments are keeping eye on the health of workers and seafood is being inspected for potential contamination.

IRRITATING BUT NOT DEADLY

Health and Human Services Department officials told a Congressional hearing that little is known about the health impacts on people of oil spills.

The oil itself is irritating but not especially dangerous to touch or even swallow, Dr. John Howard of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last week.

"Swallowing small amounts (less than a coffee cup) of oil will cause upset stomach, vomiting, and diarrhea, but is unlikely to have long-lasting health effects," he said.

But experts told the Institute of Medicine, an independent body that advises the federal government on health issues, that there can be short-term effects from fresh oil fumes.

"At least 400 tanker spills have occurred since the 1960s, and 38 of them were supertankers, and only seven of those have been studied to date," said Nalini Sathiakuma of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"These studies have shown us consistent evidence for ocular, neurological, dermal exposure as a result of exposure to volatile organic compounds. Personal protection equipment definitely reduces exposures, and education particularly of cleanup workers is extremely important," she said.

"Short-term lung, kidney, and liver functions could be affected."

The good news is that the oil breaks down in the water, becoming gummier but less toxic, said Edward Overton, professor emeritus of environmental science at Louisiana State University.

"Thirty to fifty percent of the oil is gone in the first week," he said, noting that bacteria degrade the more toxic components as the oil becomes weathered.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Chris Wilson)

 

[ocean59]

Wow, great find! So....drinking the oil if perfectly OK, it's just breathing it that is dangerous. Can it get any more absurd???

Looks like the article is now up on SOTT, http://www.sott.net/articles/show/211688-CDC-to-Senate-Swallowing-small-amounts-of-oil-unlikely-to-have-long-lasting-health-effects-

 

[maryjk_99]

I saw videos of water bubbling from methane, whales with their backs on fire; I've read reports of clean up crews getting sick (Exxon Valdez workers almost all dead), the EPA dragging their feet informing governors of whether beaches should be closed, BP taking steps to avoid a hostile takeover due to their low stock price, reporters and journalists threatened if they are within 60 feet of contamination, said journalists brought before BP officials by local police, reports of at least 8 different dispersants being used, etc. WE can be sure that no government agency will act on behalf of the citizens of the USA. Government officials actually saying with a straight face that the oil is eaten by microbes in about 30 days (they don't tell you that these same microbes create oxegen depleted dead zones in which nothing can live, or that the plankten which originates from the gulf feeds the food chain in the Atlantic Ocean).

Meanwhile, scientists are saying the relief well will not work, that the pipe system is compromised, and I even read an article that states geologists recorded seismic readings indicating an earthquake once the drill reached 30,000 feet and this is why there are fissures 7 miles away. If this is true, BP would surely have known, but continued drilling to the required depth.

Tar balls are now in Texas, meaning all the gulf states are affected.

Once evacuations begin, will they really be prepared? I doubt it. We will have an exodus north, with good hearted people taking families in. If this winter is a bad one, we may have an even more serious crisis on our hands.

This may be subjective thinking on my part, but I believe these events in the gulf will finally get people to at least think twice before believing all the see on TV, read in the newspapers and magazines. Perhaps they won't be so quick to assume conspiracy theories originate from a few deluded, revolutionary invidividuals and begin to look for and see the evidence for themselves.

Or is it true what they say, the Americans only care about what Lady GaGa is wearing, or Lindsy Lohan's most recent probation hearing, or lists of best and worse dressed people of the last year, Forbes list of 100 richest people in the world, ad nauseum. Are we really that shallow? Is it true that most of us here only care about what we can do for ourselves, and only want the best cars, the best homes, the best vacations, the biggest casinos. I keep asking my friends, what does it MEAN to be human, where is our humanity. for my kids, that we couldn't bring them into a better world than the one I grew up in. But, at least they know more than I did at their age, and even they, at 13 and 10 years of age can see some things, and do not bellieve EVERYTHING, even what they learn in school.

...I didn't see the article on SOTT, I didn't know it was already up when I posted here.

 

[ocean59]

This may be subjective thinking on my part, but I believe these events in the gulf will finally get people to at least think twice before believing all the see on TV, read in the newspapers and magazines. Perhaps they won't be so quick to assume conspiracy theories originate from a few deluded, revolutionary invidividuals and begin to look for and see the evidence for themselves.

This is one potentially beneficial outcome of the Gulf spill I hadn't thought of before, that people may be more likely to distrust government responses and be more apt to do their own research and *think.* Sounds logical, and time will tell I suppose.

...I didn't see the article on SOTT, I didn't know it was already up when I posted here.

It wasn't. Some of the best articles on the site come from suggestions posted, just like yours. :) A great place to suggest future articles for discussion is over in this SOTT subforum: http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?board=12.0