FDA is kicking the BPA-lined can further down the road in an announcement last week that the Administration plans to keep studying this issue while consumers continue to be exposed. Specifically, the Administration's response to NRDC's petition is: "FDA has determined, as a matter of science and regulatory policy, that...

Last week I was in Washington to testify in front of a Senate committee about disease clusters -- when a community is affected with strangely high rates of a certain disease over time. I was there to urge the Federal government not to overlook these communities, and to...

As Capitol Hill kicks off a series of holiday parties celebrating Gulf seafood, and Congressional Rep. Steve Scalise says "I challenge the president to a raw oyster-eating contest," it’s a good time to reflect on the principles of an 16th century scientist who famously stated: “The dose makes the...

This weekend NRDC was privileged to speak on a panel for the Gulf Coast Fund with four Gulf Coast leaders who are looking forward after the BP oil disaster. Their main message to the audience was: It may not be...

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the scientific Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) issued a technical publication, Evaluating and Communicating Subsistence Seafood Safety in a Cross-Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Let’s look...

In November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige broke apart and sank, spilling about 20 million gallons of bunker oil off the coast of northern Spain. Workers, many of whom were local fishermen, participated in a massive clean-up effort. The...

As more areas of the Gulf are re-opened for fishing and shrimping, I’m hearing more questions about the adequacy of the seafood safety assessments. Contamination from the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may cause short-term and long-term...

Today the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a Commentary on the health effects of the Gulf oil spill that I wrote along with my colleague Sarah Janssen, who is also a physician and specialist in occupational and...

Some of the fishing areas in the Gulf of Mexico are reopening. In fact, this week Louisiana reopened commercial fishing in areas East of the Mississippi. In the coming weeks, we can expect that many more areas will reopen to...

The Unified Command of the oil spill clean-up response announced Thursday that some of the workers will finally be provided with respirators. This welcome announcement was tempered by the contrary assertion - also from the Unified Command - that the workers don't...

BP is claiming that because the air concentrations of carcinogens such as benzene are below OSHA limits, the workers involved in cleaning up the Gulf oil spill are not at risk of health effects. BP is dismissing the fact that its own...

New BP air testing results were posted yesterday from April 27 – May 26 for benzene, total hydrocarbons, and 2-Butoxyethanol. There's still no information about other oil-related air toxic chemicals such as naphthalene or hydrogen sulfide, offshore.

The BP...

In previous blog posts I have raised serious concerns about the health and safety of the Gulf clean-up workers. I have also repeatedly called upon BP and the Coast Guard to publicly release the air quality...

Everywhere you go these days on the Gulf Coast, people are complaining about the smell of oil. Fishermen and other clean-up workers are noticing strong smells, and coastal residents from Venice, LA, to Pensacola, FL are complaining that when the...

I applauded last week when EPA ordered BP to switch to a safer chemical dispersant. After all, when a patient is undergoing treatment, they need to be getting the safest and most effective drug available. The Gulf is in...

Many of the fishermen who signed up to work for BP cleaning up the oil signed contracts that forbid them from talking to the press. Perhaps for that reason, reports of illnesses have been somewhat slow to emerge. Last week,...

The oil spilling into the Gulf, and the dispersants being sprayed on the oil, contain some chemicals that evaporate into the air and could be carried in the wind toward shore. Residents in some of the onshore areas closest to...

Yesterday in Venice, Louisiana, fishermen and local residents called a press conference to talk about the air. People complained of the oily smells when the wind is blowing off the water, and listed symptoms including headaches, nosebleeds, asthma attacks, cough,...

"You shoulda been out here last evening" said Carey, the shrimp boat captain who took me out to South Pass today. He saw that I was taking air samples with a hand-held monitoring device, and recounted the strong smell and...

Oil spill clean-up brings workers and volunteers into close contact with chemicals that are known to be hazardous to human health.  As we deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, it helps to brush up on history.  

After the Exxon Valdez...