Orignially posted at Inter Press Service
By Dahr Jamail
Cherri Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, at a rally at the
state capital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 2010. (Credit: Erika
Blumenfeld)
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 Symptoms
Many 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.
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."
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