Corexit: BP Using Dispersants In Gulf Banned In U.K. For Being More Toxic And Less Effective

ProPublica:

The two types of dispersants BP is spraying in the Gulf are banned for use [1] on oil spills in the U.K. As EPA-approved products [2], BP has been using them in greater quantities than dispersants have ever been used [3] in the history of US oil spills.

Read the whole story: ProPublica

Comments

[Alexander Higgins]

07:07 AM on 06/05/2010

Corexit is horrible stuff a Grade A neurotoxin pesticide to be exact.

BP’s latest oil spill response update for June 4th says the total amount of the dispersant used in the Gulf of Mexico more than 1,021,000 gallons.

But what most people don’t know is that the active ingredient of the toxic chemical dispersant, which is up to 60% by volume, being sprayed by BP to fight the Gulf oil spill is a is a neurotoxin pesticide that is acutely toxic to both human and aquatic life, causes cancer, causes damage to internal organs such as the liver and kidneys simply by absorbing it through the skin and may cause reproductive side effects.

In fact the neurotoxin pesticide that is lethal to 50% of life in concentrations as little as 2.6 parts per million has been banned for use in the UK since 1998 because it failed the UK “Rocky shore test” which assures that the dispersant does not cause a “significant deleterious ecological change”.
.

Corexit was widely used after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and according to a literature review performed by the group the Alaska Community Action on Toxics was later linked with widespread long lasting health impacts in people including respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders.

Read the rest...

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/06/05/amount-neurotoxin-pesticide-corexit-sprayed-bp-tops-1-million-gallons/

[Marisag]

02:25 PM on 05/24/2010

http://lmrk.org/corexit_9500_uscueg.539287.pdf

This is a link to the Material Data Safety Sheet of Corexit. It's not nice stuff.

[1bad540i]

03:46 PM on 05/22/2010

http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/bp-turns-to-kevin-costner-for-help-with-oil-spill-cleanup521/

so an actor has the solution and BP has nothig that compares....?

[copelli21]

06:18 PM on 05/20/2010

Well, if you aren't doing it already, I suggest we all boycott BP because this just freakin' out of control.

They are just crapping all over our country....and in our water!

Now we have to wonder of the long term damage of oil and toxic dispersants?! What's next? BP want to try throwing E-coli in the mix?

Seriously, they need to be stopped.....after they freakin' PAY for the cleanup and loss of livelihood and any health issues of those breathing in fumes and particulates while trying to clean up their mess.

Boycott BP.

[AnitaStewart]

12:44 AM on 05/20/2010

Almost everyone here keeps blaming this on Cheney, Bush, BP, Haliburton. Let's get REAL folks...any representative that took money from BIG OIL is responsible for this mess...and our leaders allowed 3700 operation oil platforms in the Gulf with no oversight and without researching the risk factors. This is irresponsible and puts money and corporations before the people they are serving. Not to mention, the planet and the flora and fauna that we share the planet with. When will most Americans GET THIS and realize that we will not have CHANGE until we vote the current criminals OUT OF OFFICE and replace them with citizen leaders? We need to take corporate financing out of elections and campaigns for this to work...and we need to support those candidates that are ready to run and serve the people SINCERELY without huge sums of money factoring in...this is a travesty and criminal!

[Marisag]

02:36 PM on 05/24/2010

Unfortunately, with the recent Supreme Court ruling on corporate funding of campaigns, this problem is not going to go away soon. Hopefully, a future, more enlightened, court will take this up again.

[Bricki]

07:16 PM on 05/19/2010

Liar Liar pants on fire. Coreexit is not banned in the UK except on rocky coastlines. The way BP is using it in the Gulf would IS approved in the UK.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

[lokipuck]

10:06 PM on 05/20/2010

Hey! You're a Huffpost Super Luser!

[1bad540i]

02:44 PM on 05/22/2010

"....Coreexit is not banned in the UK except on rocky coastlines..."
Please provide supporting facts.

[getsit]

03:55 PM on 05/19/2010

BP just wants it out of the cameras' sight. The don't care about the toxicity.

Plain old Dawn liquid seems to work well on the exteriors of animals without harming them. Nothing helps the interiors.

[babyboomerorig]

03:38 PM on 05/19/2010

Last week, someone tried to convince me that Dawn dishwashing detergent was being used to disperse the oil with "something" added. I wanted to know what that "added" thing was....now it's too obvious.

Something told me that BP sure wouldn't bother trying to be any more eco-friendly than they had been in the past.

[Beth Peterson-Young]

03:08 PM on 05/19/2010

WTH!!!!!!!!!!! You know there are SO many organizations and people out there that have had alternatives to this!! But they are squashed by the oil giants via the media cause it wouldn't be their pockets getting fat by using the alternatives!!!

[Gilliam G]

03:01 PM on 05/19/2010

Turn your back on Nature
Try and cover your a$$
testify to congress
They liked your campaign cash
Drill Baby Drill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkKkpY2qfyQ

[opprobrious]

01:55 PM on 05/19/2010

I'm amazed at the fact that dispersants are being used without anyone knowing what's in them. We have a most incurious news media.

[devildog21]

03:09 PM on 05/19/2010

Not true. We have NO news media. Except maybe Amy Goodman with Democracy Now!

[Deli]

01:42 PM on 05/19/2010

This is an extinction event. A massive, unstoppable volcano of oil mixed with millions of gallons of toxic dispersant that will render it microscopic and send it the world over to be ingested through the skin and eating apparatus of all living ocean creatures, plants, shorebirds, inland fresh water inhabitants, and absorbed or to coat all porous and non-porous non-living things. Period. (The Pacific and Atlantic Garbage Dumps are a cartoon in comparison.) And as someone else mentioned, they will soon reach all parts of the atmosphere thanks to hurricane season.

I think BP is using these banned dispersants because they can get them really cheap, compared to any unbanned alternative, and are spewing millions of gallons so did not want to go to the expense. However, no dispersant is safe.

[Giftedroot]

05:14 PM on 05/20/2010

It's not an extinction event. At worst, it'll poison most of the gulf, the coasts of several states on the gulf and southeastern US, Cuba will likely get hit as will Mexico, some species might be killed off; oil and dispersants might be blown inland during hurricane season; there could be long term health implications for those exposed; inland areas might be contaminated, maybe communities; (an absolute worse case would have Katrina II with oil); it could cost hundreds billions of dollars and take decades to recover. But, it's not an extinction event.

[Deli]

08:04 PM on 05/20/2010

If you think this is isolated to the gulf area...big surprise coming.

[1bad540i]

03:12 PM on 05/22/2010

What about migratory animals that show up and are greeted with this disaste???. Just because we have not thought about a side effect doesn't mean that it won't still be. Sorry.

[lokipuck]

10:10 PM on 05/20/2010

You are correct. Except the dispersants being used are being used because BP basically owns the company that makes them and are selling them to themself.

[Deli]

01:29 PM on 05/19/2010

All evil roads lead to Cheney and Bush. They likely kept this crap off of any restricted list.

[Tom95134]

01:08 PM on 05/19/2010

#1. What happens when these chemicals are picked up as part of the moisture pushed inland by a hurricane?

#2. My understanding is that these dispersing chemicals do nothing more than fractionate the oil into parts that will evaporate and those parts that sink as tar balls. How does this clean up the mess? Tar balls will continue to wash up on beaches for years.

[Giftedroot]

05:20 PM on 05/20/2010

While the dispersants have been tested for surface spills, there's no research data to prove how they will act at depths where they were applied down in the water column. So, by pumping the dispersants into the deep ocean, BP just undertook a big experiment.
We'll know the results and effects later.

[lokipuck]

10:11 PM on 05/20/2010

We already know what benzene does.

[Stencil]

01:06 PM on 05/19/2010

Got to dump your inventory somewhere when it's outlawed on your home turf, may as well be in the US where regulators can openly accept bribes.

[copelli21]

06:10 PM on 05/20/2010

Exactly....ain't that some ish!

[Marisag]

02:44 PM on 05/24/2010

Nope, it's made HERE in the USA. This is our bitter pill to swallow.

[Stencil]

03:36 PM on 05/24/2010

No doubt it will be about as fun as a mouth full of Alum.

I like that phrase, "only in America!" going to start using it more.