BP is actively Poisoning The Clean Up Crews

BP is actively Poisoning The Clean Up Crews

Remember how I told you that they didn't care about who they poison in the clean up crew. Inmates or anyone else. Well, here's another heart warming story about BP and the clean up crew.

Fishermen hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico are coming down sick with “severe headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing” after working long hours in oil- and dispersant-contaminated waters, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This follows a report we flagged on Tuesday about fishermen coming down sick. This one, done by a New Orleans TV station, told a similar story—fishermen reported feeling “drugged and disoriented,” “coughing up stuff,” and feeling “weak.”

Cleanup workers told the Times that they were not given protective equipment—no gloves, no respirators. Here’s BP’s response on the issue, from the Times piece:

BP spokesman Graham McEwen said Tuesday he was unaware of any health complaints among cleanup workers, noting that the company had taken hundreds of samples of so-called volatile organic carbons, such as benzene, and all the levels were well within federal safety standards.

McEwen said the fishermen the company is training are not being deployed into areas that require respirators or breathing apparatus. Those who are working for BP laying booms or skimming oil are issued protective coveralls and gloves, he said.

Note that in that excerpt, BP said it took samples of the possible health risks to cleanup workers.

It has. But as we’ve pointed out, BP’s not releasing that data to the public, and has shared it only with “legitimate interested parties,” including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And when OSHA, a federal agency, was asked by McClatchy about releasing the data, it said the data was BP’s, and “not ours to publish.”

Ha! Take that, you poor fucking seamen! What's sandy, smells of death, and is full of dead seaman? The Gulf Coast.

It's adding insult to injury that not only did BP kill the fisherman's way of life, but they are actively trying to kill the fishermen themselves. They were interviewing a bunch of Cajuns on All Things Considered not too long ago and they've basically have resigned themselves to the fact that their lives are completely over.



BP should have acknowledged and alerted those workers that the large amounts of Benzene released by the oil and how it can seriously fuck you up before getting the fishermen to sign a contract to work in cleaning up their mess.

"Those who are working for BP laying booms or skimming oil are issued protective coveralls and gloves, he said."

Ha! What the fuck is this? They might as well advise all their contractors to hold their breath as long as possible in this situation. How much do you want to bet that the contract they signed in a hurry to get even a semblance of their life back and make some money is filled with a lot of small print that prevents them from suing BP.

This whole event is like the radioactive deaths at Chernobyl, but from easily preventable causes of $20 dollar facemasks. And even then, the workers that BP is actively giving respiratory diseases to aren't actually doing anything significant to help in the cleanup anyway. Raking some oil off a beach isn't going to do much and also the booming they're doing is absolutely worthless because they don't know how to fucking boom. It's all just a farce to save face and look good in front of a camera.



Crude oil is full of Benzene and PAHs which are both very bad for your health if you don't want cancer! not to mention whatever the fuck chemicals (it's a secret) are in the Corexit dispersant that BP has pumped the Gulf full of. So basically, Louisiana is like that L4D2 level now. Though one would wonder if it was like that long before the spill.

How do you like these bananas. During the 2008 election cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with BP - a Center for responsive politics' "heavy hitter" - contribute half a million dollars to federal candidates. About 40 percent of these donations went to Democrats. The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 cycle was President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000. So in a sense, third world leaders get bought out for far more than our nations leader.

The whole idea that we have any cap limit on damages is also stupid as fuck. It is absolutely absurd for compensatory damages to ever be capped. Punitive damages, fine. But compensatory damages is just paying to clean up the mess you actually made. How fucking hard is that?