Gulf spill sickness wrecking lives

[ensho]

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/201138152955897442.html


Nearly a year after the oil disaster began, Gulf Coast residents are sick, and dying from BP's toxic chemicals.


"I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body," 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. "Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood test results and the nurse said she didn't know how I even got there."

Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010.

"I swam underwater, then found I had orange slick stuff all over me," Aguinaga said. "At that time I had no knowledge of what dispersants were, but within a few hours, we were drained of energy and not feeling good. I've been extremely sick ever since."

-snip-

"I'm scared of what I'm finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit and generate other cyclic compounds that aren't good. Many have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe."

-snip-

"I'm scared of what I'm finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit and generate other cyclic compounds that aren't good. Many have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe."

-snip-

National health crisis

Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal function, and irritation of the digestive tract. They have also caused lung damage, burning pain in the nose and throat, coughing, pulmonary edema, cancer, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, delayed reaction time and memory difficulties.

Further health problems include stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, hematological disorders, and death. Pathways of exposure to the chemicals are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact.

-snip-

Testing by Subra has also revealed the chemicals are present "in coastal soil sediment, wetlands, and in crab, oyster and mussel tissues."

-long snip-

"We’re all lab rats and we didn’t even know it. We’re waiting to see how it’s going to turn out."
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I wouldn't put so much as a toe in the Gulf waters, even here in the Keys. nor would I eat anything coming out of these waters.

it is now the Gulf of Death

[Tippy]

1. BP should be held responsible...Will it happen? NO.......

[ensho]

3. the US Health Dept and EPA should be held too

for not warning, explaining, and treating the ill

[Greybnk48]

2. A friend of mine was bragging about lounging on the

beach in Pensacola just yesterday and that her and her husband were going our for oysters that evening. They're not safe, are they? (I didn't say anything)

[ensho]

4. why didn't you say anything?

wouldn't you warn a friend?

[Greybnk48]

10. I am sure she's aware of warnings, but I think it's a

matter of not wanting to hear bad news. I seem to know a lot of people who are angered when I mention things like this; I'm always "so negative." I call it the Pollyanna syndrome (probably a seriously outdated reference).

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I get same reaction by friends who spend lots of time at beach.

They get mad if I say anything.
and they eat local seafood there.
Me, I won't even go down to Mobile anymore.

[Angry Dragon]

5. I won't worry about it

The government has said everything is safe and cleaned up so it must be.
If your friends start having skin problems and start bleeding out of their body openings it must just be something else.

[Greybnk48]

11. That's their thinking, exactly.

I'm a "downer" if I say it's not safe to swim in the Gulf, or don't eat the seafood--it's poison. Sad, because they're such nice people (friends from high school that I've reconnected with via facebook)

[FLPanhandle]

6. I don't doubt these chemicals are causing health issues, however...

"Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010."

I live in Fort Walton Beach, we swim in these waters and did during this time too. We fish and eat the fish. If one swim was causing all these health issues, our entire town would be in the hospital. I'm friends with charter boat captains and crews, they are out in the gulf and eat the fish daily. No one I know is having health issues.

These guys must have had either a very susceptible condition or a pre-existing condition that was triggered by the oil/chemicals.

I'm more pissed by the spill and cleanup than anyone, but even I won't go so far as saying it's the "gulf of death". You can swim and fish and live here without dying. The gulf environment has taken a major body blow that will last for decades, but the hyperbole doesn't help anymore than the deniers.

[ensho]

7. in the eye of the beholder

nt

[femrap]

8. Thank you for posting....

So sad that we have to get news of this from foreign sources, but I know our MSM has been told to STFU.

While reading this, I remembered that yesterday I smelled something that I have never smelled before. I am in Ohio and we have had much rain and flooding lately. I am a weather geek and always look at radars. Our rain was coming straight up from the south....which is unusual since our prevailing winds are usually westerly or northwestern in the winter.

When this BP spill first occurred, I said to friends, "Just wait until a hurricane or strong winds come up from the Gulf and our farm lands are covered with this toxic mess."

I have a very acute sense of smell since I quit smoking many years ago. I just wonder if what I whiffed in the air was that dispersant mixture. I immediately went back inside. It wasn't a bad smell per se....just something that I have never smelled before. I've traveled overseas, grew up in the country, lived in cities...never smelled anything like this. If I hadn't read this article, I might not have given it a second thought. Now I'm suspicious.

Now this mighty earthquake...Mother Nature is sick of us and I don't blame her one iota.

I wouldn't live in the Gulf area nor visit it after what BP and our own gov't has done. We're a fascist nation and are ruled by the Corporations that enslave us. They don't care if we get sick and die. We are on our own now.

[ChiciB1]

14. I SIMPLY CAN'T AGREE WITH YOU FLPanhandle... I Live Further South

than Sarasota and have seen fish that have been cut open with OIL inside them. Mote Marine, a huge Marine Biology complex CONFIRMED the goop inside was DIRECTLY connected to the oil that sank from the COREXIT! And If MOTE verifies, I LISTEN!

Furthermore, my son-in-law works in the Emergency Room at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, a very large and well known hospital and sees people coming in with rashes from swimming in the Gulf! He told me the rashes are painful and they are having trouble finding exactly what to treat them with, especially with children.

I WON'T eat ANYTHING that gets caught from the Gulf these days and we are also seeing more and more sea shells washing up on shore because the mollusks and mussels have died. I can't figure out anything else that would be killing them other than the corexit because people looking for shells BEFORE the spill were quite disappointed by the LACK of them.

Eat at your own risk, you may not see any affect until later down the line. My husband loves to fish and took some friends out on the boat to fish and they wanted to eat them. He brought them home and said we were going to have a fish fry and I told him that HE WAS GOING TO HAVE A FISH FRY! I refused to cook, so the others didn't want to cook them either. So they killed fish for NOTHING!

I suppose a person can use their own judgment, but for me... NOT EATING fish, nor have I actually been swimming yet and I can ride my bike to the beach because it's that close.

Good Luck.

[FLPanhandle]

15. It's just my experience so far.

We've seen dolphin deaths up here, occasional tar balls on the beach still, but the water around here has been fine for swimming. Like I said, some people are probably more susceptible or sensitive to the chemicals.

I wouldn't eat LA oysters, but Apalachicola oysters have been fine.

I also wouldn't eat deep water fish caught well off shore, but I know others who do seemingly without problems.

We were right on the eastern edge of the slick, so I'd be careful about eating seafood further west of Fort Walton.

Again, I'm not in any stretch of the imagination saying things are fine, nor saying there isn't a concern about what to eat. I am saying it's not "death" to go into the Gulf otherwise 10's of thousands of tourists and residences here would be in the hospitals. That's not happening.

[Kurovski]

16. Environmental Illness occurs in those susceptible.

It is usually preceded by other health issues, allergies, chronic headaches, etc. One day at the Gulf could be the one massive exposure that causes "the barrel to overflow" and trigger multiple reactions to other (usually petroleum bases) chemicals.

it was said that people are basically Guinea pigs. That is true, but we have been Guinea pigs for decades.

Many, many new chemicals are not tested, nor are combinations of new chemicals.

[Zhade]

9. BP execs should be boiled in oil for destroying my hometown (FWB).

I hate Florida -- second only to Texas in craziness -- but always loved those beaches. So many memories. My parents still live in Pensacola.

[Kurovski]

13. Environmental illness at its most obvious.

People becoming ill when the environment is ill.

Some will have permanent damage, and that so-called "intrusive, nanny-state " government will continue to not give a shit, or fight reality outright.

And we wonder why no alternatives to Oil are seriously pursued.

We are owned, we live and die, we suffer and are made poor by the slavery oil companies hold the world in.

[Bluebear]

17. .

[Rex]

18. .