People who Care and Sent Their Hair -- Boom Update

[marions ghost]

Here's an update on the Hair Boom story.

Although it seems that BP and the Coast Guard have no use for the hair booms, it is true that there was "an outpouring of philanthropy" when hundreds of thousands of people were convinced that this would really help. These people wanted to do something.

My question: Would the same people who cared enough to send their hair--care enough to do MORE to help the Gulf Situation?

Is so what would that look like? The urge to help is real and commendable. What could hundreds of thousands of people do now as as group?

:think: :think: :think::think::think::think::think: :think::think::think:


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http://www.startribune.com/nation/94335669.html

"So Far, Hair Booms Have Not Made the Cut in Oil Spill Cleanup"
Last update: May 19, 2010 - 7:02 PM

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Hair salons nationwide are sweeping up clippings, stuffing them in boxes and sending them to the Gulf Coast to help sop up oil. But the officials overseeing the massive crude cleanup say they aren't using any hair. It is all apparently just being stored in warehouses in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.

Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based charity, has been leading the effort in recent weeks, calling on barbers, beauticians and pet groomers to collect human and pet hair by the tons. The hair is stuffed in tubes of women's hosiery, creating "booms" that soak up oil, the charity says. Hair collects oil from your scalp, so why not crude oil, too?

Matt Lewis, owner of the Sport Clips barber shop in Raleigh, said a store manager heard about Matter of Trust's efforts, so Lewis registered the store on the group's website, matteroftrust.org. Last week, Sport Clips sent 12 pounds of hair at a cost of $13 in shipping to an address in Louisiana, he said. He even persuaded Sport Clips' corporate headquarters to get involved. Syd's Hair Shop in Chapel Hill, N.C., and VIPet Resort in Raleigh also are vacuuming up hair and calling the UPS guy.

But hair booms are not being used in the cleanup of the exploded BP oil rig, according to Heath Seng, who is with the U.S. Coast Guard, on Wednesday. Mark Proegler, a spokesman for BP who is at the cleanup site, said crews are using only "regular, absorbent plastic booms."

Even Matter of Trust's website acknowledged earlier this week, "At this time BP is not soliciting or accepting (hair) donations." (snip)

"We're still getting e-mails from Matter of Trust that they keep getting more and more warehouse space," he said, even after learning that hair is not now being used at the cleanup site. "I'm hoping it all works out." The Matter of Trust website Wednesday night had an "alert" that said, "BP has contacted us and wants to use the boom!" But a Coast Guard spokesman said no plans to use the hair booms had arisen.

In a May 5 New York Times story, Gautier, who co-founded Matter of Trust 10 years ago with her husband, Patrice Olivier Gautier, an executive at Apple, said the group had reached a "tipping point," increasing its network of donors from 35,000 to 90,000 in three days.

"It's truly just a surge of philanthropy," Gautier said. "Everybody can get a haircut and donate." (snip)

Thomas Birkland, an N.C. State University public policy professor who is an expert on disasters and environmental policy, said he is not surprised that people are sending hair, even if it is not being used.

"In any disaster, well-meaning people get together materials that they think will help," said Birkland, who has extensively studied oil spills, including the Exxon Valdez. But sometimes the materials just create logistical problems, he said. For instance, after 9/11, people donated blood, but it was not needed for victims, so it was used for other needs. After the tsunami in Thailand, people donated down parkas and heavy-duty tents, but it's a warm climate where coats got too hot and the tents turned into saunas.

"People want to help; they don't want to see oily birds, oily turtles or oily dolphins," Birkland said. "The question is, where do you put the hair? Where do you distribute it? It might not have been part of the response plan for a spill of this size," he continued. "Just because it's a good idea, it may not be practical."

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(c) 2010, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.).
Visit The News & Observer online at http://www.newsobserver.com/

[fasttense]

1. They aren't even doing the booming correctly.

No matter what the material, the booms have to be positioned correctly. They are not.

See this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_enCDXmVj0

[marions ghost]

6. I watched the video

it is very effective. An insider talks about "boom school." If you haven't seen it.... :grr:
Clearly shows the pervasive attitudes towards clean-up in the industry.

[SidDithers]

9. Good video, thanks for posting...

the oil spill professionsals, the ones who teach Boom School, don't use hair and hay to clean up oil spills.

Sid

[marions ghost]

10. So they should?

they would be the ones doing the booming primarily...even if they failed boom school.

[SidDithers]

11. No...

I think the hair collection, while well-meaning, is a complete waste of time and resources. There are existing items, designed and tested for oil spill abatement, that work better and are more readily available.

Hair, while it will soak up oil, will also soak up water. It'll be virtually useless for shoreline cleanup. What's required are adsorbents that soak up oil but not water, and there are plenty of those available.

Sid

[marions ghost]

12. I think you're right

I was wondering what happens when the hair gets oily but also waterlogged...

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In Pass a Lutre, it would seem that no booms are helping (pix):

http://photos.nola.com/tpphotos/2010/05/oil_in_pass_a_loutre_5.html

[SidDithers]

13. Meltblown polypropylene is what's normally used in sorbent boom...

very fine fibres are laid down in sheets, and then shredded and stuffed into netted casings which can be linked together. The polypro will sorb oil, but not water, so you're only collecting what you want to collect.

I've also used dried sphagnum peat moss for oil spill clean-up along creeks and streams. Again, it sorbs oil but not water and can be used in bioremediation. Microbes in the peat moss will break down encapsulated oil before the structure of the peat moss breaks down. It's great in marshy, weedy shoreline areas.

Sid

[marions ghost]

14. that peatmoss sounds

biodegradable, but it is acidic. That might be a problem if too much is used? It's heavier than straw, and also not as cheap and available? Does it end up on the bottom?

I'm not pushing straw. I don't know much about this whole thing, which is why I'm interested--particularly in marsh wetland protection.

[SidDithers]

15. The peatmoss floats, and will float almost indefinately...

once the peat is activated by being dried, to 10-12% moisture content, the fibres secrete a bitumen. These bitumen coated fibres repel water while soaking up oil.

The peat is acidic, pH 3.5 to 4.5, but so is the peat used in your garden. I don't know if too much is bad.

It's highly sorbent. A pound will sorb ~ 1 gallon. And it is expensive - we used to sell it for ~$40 per 20lb. bag in small quantities. I know wholesale pricing is about half that for larger quantiies.

It's sold up here with brand names like CanSorb, SphagSorb, OclanSorb, PeatSorb.

Prodct info for Cansorb, with MSDS here: http://www.avpeat.com/cansorb.html

Sid

[marions ghost]

16. sounds like this Cansorb could be used for small applications

looks like it does work...

If we cleaned up the whole Gulf coast with it, it might boost the economy of Canada significantly;)

thanks Sid

[FSogol]

2. Same thing happen in WWI. Someone (probably a fruit company)

decided that apricot pits could be used in the manufacture of carbon filters for gas masks and many towns started saving fruit pits to aid the war effort. Of course it was just nonsense but, people like having an easy way to say they are helping.

[BeFree]

3. Hair! Hair!

If and when the oil hits the $$ beaches, the hair will come in real handy.
Folks will flock to the shores down there and use hair booms to soak up the oil.

As it stands, the chemicals being sprayed offshore, at the edges of the slick, are keeping oil off the shore. So no oil is coming up on the big $$ beaches.

Most of the oil is out of sight... underwater... headed for the Atlantic.

[global1]

4. The Question Is, Where Do You Put The Hair? Well Here's A Suggestion.....

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/BP+America+President+Testifies+Senate+Environment+KOVB2ttFUvRl.jpg


They all look bald to me.

[marions ghost]

5. creative

:spray:

And some Hair Shirts (Cilicia) are in order for the three of them, too.*

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* A garment of rough cloth made from goats' hair and worn in the form of a shirt or as a girdle around the loins, by way of mortification and penance. The Latin name is said to be derived from Cilicia, where this cloth was made, but the thing itself was probably known and used long before this name was given to it. The sackcloth, for instance, so often mentioned in Holy Scripture as a symbol of mourning and penance, was probably the same thing; and the garment of camels' hair worn by St. John the Baptist was no doubt somewhat similar.

During the early ages of Christianity the use of hair-cloth, as a means of bodily mortification and as an aid to the wearer in resisting temptations of the flesh, became very common, not only amongst the ascetics and those who aspired to the life of perfection, but even amongst ordinary lay people in the world, who made it serve as an antidote for the outward luxury and comfort of their lives. St. Jerome, for instance, mentions the hair shirt as being frequently worn under the rich and splendid robes of men in high worldly positions.

[marions ghost]

7. "The Deepwater Horizon Unified Command"

is reporting on the success of the cleanup operations here (May 19):

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/page/2931/47031/?altcast_code=8a7520d5b6

Interesting reading :eyes: Everything's under control.

The Unified Command says, "Subsea dispersants was an idea sent to us via email from the public" caught my eye.

Also mentions "top kill, hot tap, "testing Kevin Costner's device," junk shot, insertion tube" as all the things being done to stop the "leak."

[marions ghost]

8. These are the logos of the Unified Command:

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/541571

[marions ghost]

17. "BP fields 10,000 ideas from the public" --May 20

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/20/1446308/inventors-complain-bp-ignores.html

BP fields 10,000 ideas from the public
Suggestions include oil-eating bacteria, bombs, Kevin Costner's 'big vacuum cleaner.'
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NEW ORLEANS A suggestion box or a publicity stunt? BP has received thousands of ideas from the public on how to stop the blown oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, but some inventors are complaining that their efforts are getting ignored.

Oil-eating bacteria, bombs and a device that resembles a giant shower curtain are among the 10,000 fixes people have proposed to counter the growing environmental threat. BP is taking a closer look at 700 of the ideas, but the oil company has yet to use any of them nearly a month after the deadly explosion that caused the leak.

"They're clearly out of ideas, and there's a whole world of people willing to do this free of charge," said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive, which has created an online network of experts to solve problems.

BP spokesman Mark Salt said the company wants the public's help, but that considering proposed fixes takes time. "They're taking bits of ideas from lots of places," Salt said. "This is not just a PR stunt." (snip)

About 70 BP workers are taking more suggestions at a tip line center in Houston. The company plans to test one idea from actor Kevin Costner - a centrifuge device to vacuum up the oil - but that was not delivered through the suggestion-box system. (snip)

BP has fielded some 60,000 calls from the public that led to 10,000 tips. About 2,500 people sent in forms spelling out their ideas in greater detail, and BP advanced 700 to the next phase.

It's not just BP that's been receiving ideas.

"You name it, it's been suggested. At least 15 times a day we get something about exploding the well - bombs, nuclear bombs, torpedoes," said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Steve Carleton, who helps handle the flood of social media responses. He said he receives about a dozen e-mails a day with a link to a YouTube video of a man using hay to sop up oil.

"There's so many ideas you become numb to them."
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Seems the public thinks BP and the govt could USE some help...!?! :shrug: