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U.S. Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help By Dahr Jamail NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, Jan 14, 2011 (IPS) - In an emotionally charged meeting this week sponsored by the
National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill,
fishermen, Gulf residents and community leaders vented their
increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues
brought on by the three-month-long disaster.
"Today I'm talking to you about my life," Cherri Foytlin
told the two commissioners present at the Jan. 12 meeting.
"My ethylbenzene levels are 2.5 times the 95th percentile,
and there's a very good chance now that I won't get to see
my grandbabies…What I'm asking you to do now, if possible,
is to amend [your report]. Because we have got to get some
health care."
Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when
it begins to break down. It is also present in BP's crude
oil.
"I have seen small children with lesions all over their
bodies," Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, a community
organisation based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, continued.
"We are very, very ill. And dead is dead. So it really
doesn't matter if the media comes back… or the president
hears us, or… if the oil workers and the fishermen and the
crabbers get to feed their babies and maybe have a good
Christmas next year… Dead is dead…I know your job is
probably already done, but I'd like to hire you if you don't
mind. And God knows I can't pay you. But I need your heart.
And I need your voice."
| | Toxic SymptomsMany of the chemicals
present in the oil and
dispersants are known to
cause the following health
problems:
Headaches, nausea,
vomiting, kidney damage,
altered renal functions,
irritation of the digestive
tract, 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, memory difficulties,
stomach discomfort, liver
and kidney damage,
unconsciousness,
tiredness/lethargy, irritation
of the upper respiratory
tract, and hematological
disorders. |
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Commissioner Frances Beinecke, president of the National
Resources Defence Council, vowed to convey her concerns to
the White House.
"We hear what you are saying," said Beinecke. "We will take
these health issues and concerns back to the president."
The commission, appointed by President Barack Obama,
released its final report this week after a six-month
investigation into the nation's worst-ever oil disaster.
The report recommended a massive overhaul of the oil
industry's failed safety practices in the Gulf, as well as
the creation of a new independent agency to monitor offshore
drilling activity.
However, most of the 250 people at the meeting here focused
on the health crisis that has exploded in the wake of the
April 2010 disaster, leaving former BP clean-up workers and
Gulf residents alike suffering from ailments they attribute
to chemicals in BP's oil and the toxic dispersants used to
sink it.
Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach,
Florida, has been testing and treating patients with high
levels of oil-related chemicals in their bloodstream.
These are commonly referred to as volatile organic compounds
(VOCs). Anthropogenic VOCs from BP's oil disaster are toxic
and have negative chronic health effects.
Dr. Soto is finding disconcertingly consistent and high
levels of toxic chemicals in every one of the patients he is
testing.
"I'm regularly finding between five and seven VOCs in my
patients," Dr. Soto told IPS. "These patients include people
not directly involved in the oil clean-up, as well as
residents that do not live right on the coast. These are
clearly related to the oil disaster."
Nevertheless, U.S. government agencies like the
Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug
Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, along with President Obama himself, have
declared the Gulf of Mexico, its waters, beaches, and
seafood, safe and open to the public.
Gulf residents at the meeting on Wednesday made sure the two
commissioners were aware of the health crisis they are
facing.
Tom Costanza of Catholic Charities in the New Orleans area
stated that the region is in the middle of a social service
crisis and faced a claims process he said is fraught with
problems.
"People call me crying and dying," he said. "They need
medical attention and support to get through this."
Ada McMahon works with Bridge the Gulf Project, a citizen
journalism website that highlights stories from Gulf Coast
communities about justice and sustainability. She told IPS
that "the unmet health issues are the biggest issue, along
with residents turned advocates going to meetings of the
commission or with [BP oil spill fund administrator Kenneth]
Feinberg to tell people about their health problems."
"People who can afford the 300-dollar blood tests have found
alarming rates of chemicals in their bodies, and these
people are concerned and doing what they can to speak out,"
she said. "But they feel they can't wait for Congress or
Obama to address this, because they need doctors and support
now in the communities."
LaTosha Brown, director of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community
Renewal and Ecological Health, which works with 250
community groups, agreed that "the key concern expressed by
the community in response to the report is the overwhelming
need for access to health care."
"Over and over, people exposed to crude and dispersants from
the drilling disaster told stories of serious health issues
- from high levels of ethylbenzyne in their blood, to
respiratory ailments and internal bleeding - and expressed
an urgent need for access to doctors who have experience
treating chemical exposure," she said.
Stephen Bradberry, executive director of the Alliance
Institute, a non-profit that provides community organising
support in the Gulf South, worries that the Gulf Coast
Claims Facility is not accepting health claims, thus leaving
sick residents unable to work and without any income to pay
their medical bills.
"There is bruising and skin lesions, not just with clean-up
workers, these are residents not involved in the clean-up,"
Bradberry told IPS. "Just yesterday I learned of five people
on Grand Isle who passed away…people who did not have health
problems prior to this. Nevertheless, there has not been any
talk of monitoring of these communities."
Bradberry, who also attended the forum on Wednesday, also
said, "We need a separate health task force that can focus
solely on testing, monitoring, and studying the long-term
health issues from exposure to crude and dispersants. And
this needs to happen now."
(END)
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