Watch this video, not toxic? Show me your test results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq65E7rmO_k
Dr. Riki Ott. a toxicologist, has written books on the Valdez diaster and posted information on oil toxicity on her website here:
http://www.rikiott.com/spillinfo.php
Sound Truth & Corporate Myths -Riki’s book in its entirety, as a 4 meg pdf.
http://www.rikiott.com/pdf/Sound%20Truth.pdf
http://www.silenceinthesound.com/medicalissues.shtml
Communication to John Dingell requesting an oversight hearing (pdf document) (July, 2007) includes information on the long-term health effects suffered by cleanup workers
http://www.rikiott.com/pdf/Exhibit_10_Dingell_02_2007.p...
http://www.rikiott.com/pdf/congress_briefing.pdf
BP deliberately sinks oil with Corexit as cover up
BP’s massive oil spill will officially become the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico this week. The volcanic oil that’s gushed for two and a half months will surpass the 140 million gallon mark, surpassing the record-setting Ixtoc I spill off Mexico’s coast from 1979 to 1980. Meanwhile, In a stunning interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on June 29th, Allegiance Capitol Corporation V.P. Fred McCallister is claiming that BP is deliberately sinking oil with the toxic chemical dispersant Corexit, to hide the extent of the oil spill. By sinking the oil before it can be collected, BP won’t have to pay fines on it.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2010/07/bp-deliberately-sinks-oil-corexit-cover
The two versions of Corexit [Corexit 9500 and Corexit(R) EC9527A] believed to be in BP’s secret formula both contain 2-butoxyethanol, a substance known to cause headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, one of these substances may:
• Cause moderate irritation and be harmful if absorbed through skin.
• Be harmful if swallowed, causing liver and kidney effects and/or damage. There may be irritation to the gastro-intestinal tract.
• Cause central nervous system effects, nausea, vomiting, anesthetic or narcotic effects from excessive exposure.
• Cause injury to red blood cells (hemolysis), kidney or the liver from repeated or excessive exposure.
It is easy to recognize BP’s underwater oil fountain as an environmental catastrophe, but human health is likely to be affected as well. Because of the dangers that both crude oil and chemical dispersants may pose to the liver, people with chronic liver disease are urged to take additional precautions if visiting the Gulf Coast this summer.
http://www.liversupport.com/wordpress/2010/06/will-recent-oil-spill-impact-those-with-liver-disease/
The main ingredients of Corexit is 2-Butoxyethanol which can make up to 60% of the dispersant and is known to be toxic to blood, kidneys, liver, and the central nervous system (CNS).
2-Butoxyethanol is also known to cause cancer, birth defects and has been found to cause genetic mutations and is a delayed chronic health hazard as well as an environmental hazardous material
Corexit also contains Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury, and Cyanide.
How effective is Corexit in dispersing Gulf crude?
Corexit 9500 is only 54.7% effective and Corexit 9527A is 63.4% effective in dispersing the crude oil found off the shores of South Louisiana.
BP has sprayed both Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 into the Gulf of Mexico to disperse the oil both of which have been banned in the UK since 1998 for failure to pass the Rocky Shores Test.
By BP’s own admission Corexit has the potential for bioaccumulation meaning it has the potential to accumulate in the tissues of organism beginning with the first organism in a food chain.
Why allow the use of these toxic dispersants?
Well the EPA has ordered BP to stop using the dispersants but BP has refused
Instead BP replied with its justification for using Corexit which the EPA responded to saying BP’s response “lacked sufficient analysis and focused more defending your initial decision” .
In general, the EPA justifies the use of dispersants because they are less toxic than oil and the cause less of an environment impact that oil along the coastline calling dispersants an environmental trade off which is the lesser of two evils.
However the choice of using Corexit contradicts both of those justifications.
Corexit is lethal in as little as 2.6 parts per million where oil is lethal in 11 parts per million meaning that Corexit is over 4 times more toxic than oil.
Furthermore scientific studies show that oil dispersed with Corexit is 11 times more lethal than oil alone.
In fact the study referenced showed that crude oil was lethal at 4250 parts per million to killifish but combination of oil mixed with Corexit was lethal in as little as 317.7 ppm.
“Dispersed oils were more toxic than crude oils,” noted the report.
The other justification of lessening the environmental impact along the shoreline doesn’t hold up either as the reason Corexit was banned in the UK is because it was in fact shown to have a “significant deleterious ecological change” on the shoreline.
The fact Corexit is 4 times as toxic as oil and up to 11 times as toxic when combined with oil it literally makes no sense to allow the use of such a toxic chemical that can “delete” the ecological systems along the Gulf coast.
A report in the journal Environmental Toxicology a decade ago concluded that lethality levels in “dispersed oil combinations were significantly more toxic to these organisms than .. crude oil.” Another study, this time of snails and amphipods reached exactly the same conclusion.
What are the long term effects of Corexit?
The EPA has stated over and over that the long term effects of the use of Corexit are unknown yet there is plenty of data documenting the long term effects on humans (see below).
Further making the EPA claims questionable is EPA’s Deepwater horizon response sites site clearly states that between 1 million and 2.5 million gallons of the neurotoxin pesticide Corexit was used in the 1979 ixtoc oil spill which makes it unfathomable that the EPA doesn’t know what the long term effects are of a chemical that has been widely used, and eventually banned in certain countries, over a period of 30 years.
To the contrary of the EPA’s statement scientific studies widely state Corexit 9527 has been tested extensively in the laboratory and used on oil spills since 1978 and a considerable number of toxicity reports exist concerning a wide variety of species.
So why does the Federal Government continue to tell us the the long term effects of the dispersant usage are unknown?
Why does the Federal Government continue to pretend like they know so little about the dispersant BP is being used?
What are the chemical components of the dispersants COREXIT 9500 and COREXIT 9527?
While the main ingredient which makes up to 60% of Corexit is reason enough to cause concern.
If you dig any more dirt on these let me know.
The components of COREXIT 9500 and 9527 are:
CAS Registry Number Chemical Name
57-55-6 1,2-Propanediol
111-76-2 2-butoxy-Ethanol
577-11-7 Butanedioic acid, 2-sulfo-, 1,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl) ester, sodium salt (1:1)
1338-43-8 Sorbitan, mono-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate
9005-65-6 Sorbitan, mono-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate, poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) derivs.
9005-70-3 Sorbitan, tri-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate, poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) derivs
29911-28-2 2-Propanol, 1-(2-butoxy-1-methylethoxy)-
64742-47-8 Distillates (petroleum), hydrotreated light
The have also been found to contain Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury, and Cyanide among other heavy metals
What are the Chronic Health effects of Corexit?
Here are some of the highlights from the MSDS for the active ingredient (2-butoxyethanol) – of Corexit (up to 60% by volume)
• Severe over-exposure can result in death.
• MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Mutagenic for bacteria and/or yeast.
• The substance may be toxic to blood, kidneys, liver, central nervous system (CNS).
• Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage.
• Repeated exposure to highly (this) toxic material may produce general deterioration of health by an accumulation in one or many human organs.
• Hazardous in case of skin contact (permeator), of ingestion, of inhalation.
• May cause adverse reproductive effects (maternal and paternal fertility, fetoxicity)
• May cause birth defects (teratogenic)
• May cause cancer (tumorigenic)
• Penetrates intact skin easily and can cause systemic effects and central nervous system depression
• Inhalation: May cause irritation of the respiratory tract. May affect behavior (analgesia), behavior/central nervous system (headache, drowsiness, dizzness, stuttering, coma, weakness, ataxia, slurred speech, loss of coordination and judgement, personality changes, analgesia, blurred vision, tremor, excitement, somnolence), sense organs, the gastrointestinal tract (nausea, vomiting), metabolism (metabolic acidosis), respiration (dyspnea), urinary system (kidneys – hematuria, albuminuria, polyuria, oliguria, renal failure), liver (liver damage).
• Exposure to high vapor concentration may also cause corneal or lens opacity of the eyes.
• Ingestion: Causes gastrointestinal tract irritation with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. May affect behavior/central
nervous system (see inhalation), respiration (dyspnea), metabolism, cardiovascular system.
• Chronic Potential Health Effects: Inhalation and Ingestion: Prolonged or repeated inhalation or ingestion may affect the liver, blood (changes in red blood cell count, pigmented or nucleated red blood cells, microcytosis with or without anemia, erythropenia, reticulocytosis, granulocytosis, leukocytosis), urinary system (kidneys -hematuria), metabolism (weight loss), endocrine system (spleen, thymus, pancreas). Prolonged or repeated inhalation of high concentrations may also cause lung hemmorrhage, congestion, bronchopneumonia.
• Classified in Canada as CLASS D-1A: Material causing immediate and serious toxic effects (VERY TOXIC).
• Classified in Canada as CLASS D-2B: Material causing other toxic effects (TOXIC)
http://www.protecttheocean.com/whats-in-corexit/#more-527
http://cynicalreport.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/how-toxic-is-corexit/
Can't have massive numbers of dead TV reporters in the next few months, can we?
Otherwise they would be all too happy to broadcast the cap and trade show in HD, now wouldn't they!
The 2-butoxyethanol compound is NOT an ingredient in Corexit 9500. It is ONLY found in Corexit 9527, which, IF it has been used at all in this spill was only during the earliest phases, after which ONLY Corexit 9500 has been used. IF it was used at all, it has long degraded away and/or been diluted below any possible toxic level.
Lastly, I get my information from the EPA and other science sites, or from looking up scholarly paper in Google Scholar. That means I don't get the green crap that you are putting all your faith in. The ONLY information I have gotten from Nalco is the list of ingredients in Corexit 9500 and 9527, for which they waived their trade secret rights.