1) What kind of chemicals were they using to clean up this mess that caused the workers to be so sick?
2) If it is making people sick what is it doing to marine life?
3) How much money is BP willing to put into this mess? Sounds like a lot of buying people off instead of going to court.
4) How could we prevent this from happening again?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bp-oil-spill-concerns-for-long-term-health-of-workers-4-years-later-1.2606713
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ReplyDeleteI chose this article because it related to all types of issues including social, economic and environmental. When the spill first occurred, BP had no idea how to stop the leak or clean up the oil. In order to seem like they were doing something while a real solution was discovered, they used a third of the world’s supply of Corexit 9500 and 9527. These chemicals are very toxic dispersants that cause the oil to be emulsified into tiny beads and sink to the bottom. This much of these dispersants have never been used on such a large scale and people were unsure on how the ecosystem would respond. This is what lead scientists to believe that both the exposure to the oil itself and the dispersants caused the people working on the spill to have health problems both in their respiratory system and their skin.
Not only is it making people sick but it is also negatively affecting the wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences reported huge deformities in the sea life following the spill. These include shrimp with no eyes, crabs without claws, a record number of dead dolphins, 60% of the coral platforms wiped out, and many more. These deformities can be directly related to the oil spills and the toxins used to clean it.
BP is willing to pay a lot of money to put an end to this mess. They are offered the people affected by the spill up to 60 700$ each depending on their case. They also offered the NIH a 10 million dollar award to fund research on the health and environmental affects of the spill. Honestly, I think that BP is in a lot of hot water already for causing the spill and need to keep these issues quiet to avoid more anger from the community. By offering these people money, they think they can avoid the problem, but really it is just hiding the issue, which could very well make it worse in the long run.
Personally, I think the only way to avoid these issues for sure in the future is to avoid more oil spills. We need to find and apply more preventive measures for oil spills. This will avoid the need to use these chemicals in the first place. Also, people should test the chemicals that are being used on a larger scale before just trying it for the first time when they need it. Although it would take a lot more time, this would avoid these surprises that occur during the oil spill.
This is my source to find the environmental and health affects of the spill:
http://www.care2.com/causes/bp-used-sickening-chemicals-to-clean-gulf-coast-oil-spill.html
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ReplyDeleteI chose to do my post on this article because I find it interesting that there are still lawsuits, health effects, and environmental effects today, 4 years after bp’s oil spill. It unfortunately does not shock me that the company would have used a chemical that now have been discovered to cause more harm than the spill itself. After the public found out how much oil was being released into the waters, they freaked out. So, I think that it is only predictable that because bp’s reputation was on the line, they would find the quickest way to make the mess “disappear” even if there had not been enough studies done on the clean-up chemical Corexit.
A study from the Georgia Institute of Technology reports that Corexit dispersant has toxic effects on microscopic animals called rotifers. These animals are native to the gulf ecosystem, and the chemical is current inhabiting 50% of their eggs. These rotifers grow to become a food source for many of the smaller fish, leaving them infected too.
So, not only has it effected many workers, it is also continuing to effect the ecosystem, and so I personally, don’t think any amount of money can truly fix it.
In order to prevent chemicals like these to have to be used in the future to clean up oil spills, we not only need deeper studies into the long-term effects before they are introduced, but the best option is to use our oil supply sustainably. We as a society depend so much on oil that companies like bp are pressured to fill this need fast, efficiently, and at low cost. This ongoing demand is what causes procedures to be less frequent, and mistakes to happen. Bp did not have a plan in place for a big spill and so because they were rushing to fill demand, there was a mistake, and then another one to protect their name.
Sources: http://www.greenfudge.org/2013/05/04/how-can-future-oil-spills-be-prevented/
http://www.treehugger.com/ocean-conservation/disperant-made-bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-52-times-more-toxic.html
Sweet post Ruth!
DeleteI agree I found it really odd there is still lawsuits on going.
DeleteGreat Post Ruth,
DeleteI found the use of the chemical Corexit really weird in how it effected the microscopic life and as a result the top of the food chain will now suffer. I can't believe that no one tested this chemical before it was used to disperse the oil! Hopefully this chemical won't effect the gulf too hard and ruin the ecosystems there. Its quite sad.
This is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteI found the article to be interesting, I found it odd that only now are the medical issues being talked about. I would have thought that they would have been added into the previous lawsuits against BP. I guess the medical issues wouldn’t arise until much later, yet I would have thought that BP would have set assistance for thoses who have suffered medical issues as a result.
It does also make me a little upset not only that BP is essentially not assisting those who sustained medical issues due to their spill. Yet also the whole idea of if this is happening to humans what is the impact on the wildlife. I assume that no one is really pushing for BP to set up a continued fund to help the eco system get back on track after they cleaned up most of the oil spilled. I think this wouldn’t be that bad of a thing for them to do, at least it could buy them some good PR.
http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/gulf-of-mexico-restoration/claims-information.html
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/04/09/3981859.htm