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Gulf Coast Toxicity Syndrome
AP
Vicki B. Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America, wrote, “Alongside natural disaster, a very real human disaster looms. The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has wrought havoc on sea and on land. But attention is now turning to the long-term effects the disaster will have on the coastlines, on businesses, and on American men, women and children. The immediate effects of the oil spill are obvious. Others, such as its effects on American families, will be hard to measure and will take years to document.”
There are effects from the oil spill that you can see, like oil washing ashore, and those that you can’t, like when oil compounds break down and go airborne. What is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is truly a nightmare of epic proportions. And it’s going to be a health disaster whose dimensions are growing exponentially behind curtains erected by the federal government. Few people are grasping the magnitude of the Gulf oil tragedy, not grasping the grave consequences for many millions of people and eventually the entire world.
It is going to affect not only the livelihoods and employment of locals but will also contribute to the health failure of millions of people. It is so profoundly sad – like watching a loved one with a gunshot to the belly witnessing the blood coming out, but in this case it’s the planet belching up black blood and poison gas in huge and very possibly unending quantities.
There’s an old adage about not seeing the forest for the trees. It means getting wrapped up in the details of a circumstance and losing appreciation for the big picture. Sometimes we need to step back and look at things from a different perspective. Consider the extraordinary situation in the Gulf. Not that much news coming out of there, no mention of deadly threats but we do know who went to the yacht races last weekend. Life seems almost normal on the front page of the Times or in Yahoo or Google News. Things are stabilizing at the king of pop’s mansion, and Obama is personally meeting with a young gay girl who was given a hard time with her prom.
While the situation in the Gulf is grim it will soon get a lot grimmer. There are certain chemicals mixed in with the oil that release toxic gases, finding a way to make it up into the air.
Many different gases from hydrogen sulfate to benzene are being released into the air at around 4000 times what it considered safe to humans. As a result of this people are going to become gravely ill. People are going to be poisoned and unfortunately some are going to die. We have already seen breathing problems in the Gulf region and now reports are coming in as far away as Atlanta, Georgia.
Large amounts of rusty substance washed up on the beaches
and floated beneath the bridges and into the Bay of St. Louis Sunday.
“These 18-inch boom systems didn’t even slow it down. This is not
protection,” Mayor Les Fillingame said. “This is a wake-up call.”
You will be shocked that you are not reading what you are in this essay in the corporate-and-government-controlled mass media. The same people and government that love secrets seem to be holding back on us but this cannot be sustained for long as the disaster continues to unfold into a planet-damaging event. “Health officials say there seems to be little reason to worry at this point.” If you believe that, well, what can I say but that is the official position at this point on the 21st of June. “But some note that health effects months or years from now remain a question mark, particularly for the workers who are in the thick of it, cleaning up oil from the BP spill in the Gulf.”
On June 14th Obama promised that “things are going to return to normal” along the stricken Gulf Coast and the region’s fouled waters will be in even better shape than before the catastrophic BP oil spill. He even declared Gulf seafood safe to eat. Meanwhile people are hurting around the Gulf with many facing bankruptcy and complete life destruction and they are now talking openly of permanent ruptures to the seabed floor around the oil well.
According to F. William Engdahl, “Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that
the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.” According to Kutcherov, a leading specialist in the theory of abiogenic deep origin of petroleum, “What BP drilled into was what we call a ‘migration channel,’ a deep fault on which hydrocarbons generated in the depth of our planet migrate to the crust and are accumulated in rocks, something like Ghawar in Saudi Arabia.” Ghawar, the world’s most prolific oilfield has been producing millions of barrels daily for almost 70 years with no end in sight. Ghawar like all elephant and giant oil and gas deposits all over the world, is located on a migration channel similar to that in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
Engdahl also writes, “According to a report from Washington investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, “the Obama White House and British Petroleum are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP’s liability for damage caused by what can be called a ‘mega-disaster.’” Madsen cites sources within the US Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection for his assertion. Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Salazar, are working with BP’s chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion. According to informed estimates cited by Madsen, however, the disaster has a real potential cost of at least $1,000 billion ($1 trillion). That estimate would support the pessimistic assessment of Kutcherov that the spill, if not rapidly controlled, “will destroy the entire coastline of the United States.”
The president had it right saying this disaster has the dimension and feeling of a 9/11 crisis but this time we are facing something much more disturbing and profoundly threatening to the world, starting with the southern United States, Cuba, the Caribbean, Mexico and then the North Atlantic and eventually Europe. But it is a mystery why the Obama administration has turned down thirteen countries that have offered to help us clean up the Gulf.
The true depth of the disaster is being lost partly because events are being reported without much context and with more attention paid to boat racing executives on weekend holiday than to poisonous gases in the air. In terms of health and medicine there is a cover-up going on and that is nothing new or surprising. Historically it has been impossible for medical officials to be truthful about public health issues. This is exemplified by their dishonesty regarding the danger of mercury-containing dental amalgams as well as the danger of mercury-containing vaccines. So how can we expect them to be capable of coming clean about the health implications of the Gulf oil spill disaster? This is not a joking or theoretical matter. You may or may not have not noticed on television that workers in the oil cleanup are not wearing masks, meaning medical and health officials learned absolutely nothing from the Valdez disaster and the toxic sickness that enveloped them. See Part Two – Medical Treatments for Airborne Poisons (Part Two will be ready tomorrow)
Allopathic doctors are neither ready nor able to treat the victims of the catastrophic toxicity arising from the oily vomit coming out from the bowels of the earth. Doctors need to be keenly aware of potential health risks to people exposed to not only oil in the water but also to fumes in the air. It should be perfectly clear that as long as the well remains uncapped, the situation will grow worse with more and more people’s health adversely affected. Notice how they are not talking much about the end of this disaster anymore and for good reason.
The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is
substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears
that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This
places an enormous urgency to reduce the amount of –
or completely stop – the leaking oil this summer.
As early as the May 7th the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental action group, was warning that people along the coast were already reporting headaches, nausea, coughing, and throat irritation. “There are significant health risks associated with this oil spill and the risks aren’t just to wildlife, they are also to humans,” said Dr. Gina Solomon, senior scientist with the NRDC. “The risks include acute health effects from the air pollution from the oil itself, along with health effects from burning the oil as well as contamination of the food chain, all of which can result in a long-term health concerns.”
From Tampa Meteorologist Bobby Deskins from almost two months ago, “Here in the Bay Area, there were widespread reports of an odor in the air. Air quality tests have proved to be inconclusive, but it is not a far stretch to believe the odor came from the incident. That possibility seems even more likely when you consider the smell went away once the winds here then turned to the SE-S. That would blow the odor back toward the northern Gulf of Mexico.”
A high pressure system centered over the Gulf of Mexico will bring light northwesterly winds to the oil spill area over the next few days was the report from Tampa on the 18th of June. As a result, models that attempt to predict the future track of the spill are suggesting that the oil will head back toward the southeast. These kinds of reports are going to become increasingly important to doctors and patients alike who are going to have to deal with the deadly winds, as they will probably soon be called.
Chris Landau is a proponent of the inorganic oil creation process and has published on this subject warning people of the danger of drilling so deeply into the bowels of the earth. The process of oil creation he talks about differs from what we were all taught in school. He poses that oil is the byproduct of natural deep earth processes and that oil doesn’t come “from decayed plant matter.” The gulf oil volcano is proof that he is correct and that
the oil coming up from 40,000 feet has nothing to do with dinosaurs but has everything to do with deadly chemicals and life-threatening toxicity.
Landau says this is not a “spill.” A spill is finite. This is a blowout, an explosion of oil spewing out of the earth under great pressure. What is spewing out, blasting out with more pressure than we comprehend, is a toxic mixture of various chemicals, some of which can kill you at a mere 400 parts per million. There’s hydrogen sulfide, benzene, methane, pentane, propane, ethane, butane, and a host of other combinations of hydrogen and carbon. All are dangerous in various concentrations. They are dangerous to breathe in and dangerous to touch. They cause cancer, lung damage and death. Some of them are so dangerous they cause genetic damage, passing their destruction onto generations yet unborn.
Hydrogen sulfide has been detected at
concentrations more than 100 times greater than
the level known to cause physical reactions in people.
Landau explains the process, where the deadly gas comes from: “Hydrogen sulfide is coming out of the earth itself, part of deep down below.
At lower concentrations, hydrogen sulfide gives off a rotten egg smell, but you can’t smell it at 150 ppm. This is what makes the stuff so dangerous. You can’t smell it at higher concentrations, and it will kill you at higher concentrations. The EPA itself has observed odor-causing pollutants associated with oil on the shore in the gulf region and is constantly taking measurements.”
Inhaling air contaminants is making some people sick now and may make many more chronically ill in the future. Local populations are already toxic from other chronic exposures from airborne mercury and other chemicals making people more sensitive to current toxic assaults from the oil disaster. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division has issued a Code Orange air quality alert for Metro Atlanta for Friday, June 18. That means the air is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.
The wind can easily spread the oil in any direction
according to the direction the wind is blowing.
Reports are coming in that people in Atlanta are reporting breathing problems. It seems many are feeling sore throats, constant slight headaches, extreme fatigue, and nausea while outside. Is it so surprising that when the rain and wind come up from the Gulf into southern Georgia people would suffer from the toxic fallout? Those living in the Gulf region are at serious health risks and neither the media, the EPA, the CDC nor the president is warning them. In fact there seems to be a complete cover-up and news blackout of the events as they are unfolding, though we see scattered reports from local news agencies confirming most everything in this presentation. Thousands who are doing cleanup duty and working on the ships are seriously in harm’s way. And then it is anyone’s guess how far and wide the toxic damage will carry.
The Louisiana Environmental Action Network released its analysis of air monitoring test results by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s air testing data comes from Venice, a coastal community 75 miles south of New Orleans in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish.
The findings show that levels of airborne chemicals have far exceeded state standards and what’s considered safe for human exposure. For instance, hydrogen sulfide has been detected at concentrations more than 100 times greater than the level known to cause physical reactions in people. Among the health effects of hydrogen sulfide exposure are eye and respiratory irritation as well as nausea, dizziness, confusion and headache. The concentration threshold for people to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion but has been measured higher than 3,000 parts per billion early on in this exponentially unfolding disaster.
EPA is monitoring for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) at a number of
locations near Venice and Chalmette, Louisiana, and Mobile,
Alabama. Monitors are detecting H2S in the Venice, LA area.
Louisiana’s ambient air standard for the VOC benzene, for example, is 3.76 ppb, while its standard for methylene chloride is 61.25 ppb. Long-term exposure to airborne benzene has been linked to cancer, while the EPA considers methylene chloride a probable carcinogen. Air testing results show VOC concentrations far above these state standards. On May 6, for example, the EPA measured VOCs at levels of 483 ppb. The highest levels detected to date were on April 30, at 3,084 ppb, following by May 2, at 3,416 ppb.
Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are populated by
more than 10,000 workers. They must be protected
from hazardous exposures to toxic VOCs.
Tens of thousands more are deployed on shore and at sea trying to hold back the dark waters. Depending on their proximity to the oil leak, wind direction, wave action, and cleanup tasks being performed,
BP Deepwater Horizon cleanup workers in the Gulf are potentially exposed to the Mississippi Canyon crude oil components n-hexane, naphthalene, benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, and xylene; other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in dispersants and other oil spill remediation chemicals; methane, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and other toxic gases; acid gases like sulfuric acid; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and particulates from diesel and gasoline engine exhaust and burning oil. Even this list is not exhaustive. Potential short-term health effects from these exposures include Irritation to eyes, skin, and respiratory system; dizziness; rapid heart rate; headaches; tremors; confusion; unconsciousness. Potential long-term health effectsinclude cancer, birth defects, and permanent nerve damage as well as damage to the liver, kidneys, respiratory, reproductive, blood, and immune systems.
Here’s a chart based on the data from LEAN’s analysis, which was done by award-winning analytical chemist Wilma Subra:
“The media coverage of the BP oil disaster to date has focused largely on the threats to wildlife, but
the latest evaluation of air monitoring data shows a serious threat to human health from airborne chemicals emitted by the ongoing deepwater gusher,” the Institute for Southern Studies blog reported on May 10. Any one of these chemicals in these concentrations would be lethal.
Mixed together into a toxic soup the oil disaster is truly unthinkable and is a medical and health disaster of unfathomable proportions.
In addition to destroying the wildlife, killing animals and devastating the coastal economy,
the massive oil spill in the Gulf will have damaging psychological and physical consequences for Gulf coast residents, the entire state of Florida, and now it seems that Georgia and the rest of the southeastern United States could be threatened considering we are already seeing problems from people in Atlanta. And we are not even talking worse case scenarios.
Louisiana and Alabama residents know an inconvenient truth:
BP — not our president — controls the response. In fact,
people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.
Riki Ott
Marine toxicologist and Exxon Valdez survivor
Two months since the deadly explosion of the Deepwater Horizon,
mental health professionals in the region are preparing for the worst, citing the potential for depression, domestic violence and even suicide, but we are not hearing from the CDC or anyone else about the health hazard and what to do about it. This is in great part due to the fact that it is the official policy of the government to ignore toxic hazards coming from industry, from coal-fired electrical plants, from incinerators and crematoriums as well as from doctors and dentists who compromise the very fabric of society with their totally insane use of mercury in their professional practices.
Dr. J. Steven Picou, a sociology professor at the University of South Alabama, describes Cordova, Alaska, the area most adversely affected by the Valdez, as a community marked by loss of social capital – meaning loss of trust, family, friendships, networks and the sense of belonging within the community. As Cordova’s sense of community “corroded,” there was a rise in domestic violence, self-isolation, medicating and depression. He also noted that prolonged exposure to an oil spill will cause many to dwell on the horrifying realities of the disaster, eventually leading to more severe mental health conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
With the emerging evidence of fissures, the quiet
fear now is the methane bubble rupturing the
seabed and exploding into the Gulf waters.
Others are worried about a massive loss of life through a methane explosion that would create a tidal wave that would take out all of Florida and most of the rest of the Gulf region. Included in the worst case scenarios is a toxic rain falling upon tens of millions further north from the Gulf as wind patterns and or a hurricane comes barreling into the region. Others see the entire North Atlantic turning into a black and very dead sea and the nightmare scenarios go on and on making any serious readers’ stomach sick to death over what has been done to our planet. We have allowed corporate capitalists do something they cannot undo and this is sad and truly tragic for the future of our children.
