It’s not the corexit, itself that is toxic, it’s the oil that combines with corexit and goes into suspension, creating a giant toxic cloud of oil in the water. Yes, it could be a huge disaster, but we won’t know the extent of the damage for years. We could have a huge toxic sea in the Gulf. We just don’t know.
Stop digging the hole, Eva. Corexit is a very dangerous application to oil.
Actually, we DO know. The highest concentration of oil I have seen quoted in the subsurface "plumes" is 5ppm.
Since the CoRexit was used in much lesser amounts than the oil released, the Corexit will be present at much lower levels. Taking the worst-case scenarios (from the Corexit standpoint) you have 2 million gallons of Corexit added to 120 million gallons of oil, so the concentration of Corexit IN THE PLUMES can be no higher than 100 ppb. So obviously any specific compound in the Corexit will be even lower than that.
That may be high enough to affect some fish larva in the plumes, but not enough to kill adult fish. And certainly no air-breathing species.
And that is in the plumes. By the time the Corexit gets to where some humans might be exposed, it will be diluted even more.
The EPA has been testing both air and water at multiple sites across the Gulf Coast for compounds present in both types of Corexit. Bottom line......none found.
The Corexit is just another "green scare" that the more gullible sorts are falling for. Remember the ALAR fiasco??