Saturday, July 3, 2010

Americans Are Stupid - Beach Fun

Americans Are Stupid - Beach Fun

This video ruined my week. Yes, I was fully aware that people were beyond stupid, but this video ruined my 4th of July weekend before it even started.



"Mommy get the oil off!"
"I can't get it off, rub your feet around or something"

Ha! Oh man. this shit. America, America this is you! This sort of thing is literally happening right at the feet of the average person, and they're still managing to ignore it. They're just swimming anyways like nothing is happening. As if the beach isn't completely filled with clear examples of pollution and certain death at your door.

This raises the question of exactly what minimum percentage of beach coverage is required to drive Americans away from the beach. I can't honestly understand the type of lifestyle that would compel someone to absolutely have to go to the beach, even when you know the water and sand is full of oil. Is it really that hard to just do something else? Is it the only way to get laid in Florida?

By god, they spent what meager amounts they had saved up on a beach vacation and dammit, they're going to have a beach vacation! Even if it cost them their lives and the lives of their children! At some point you just have to ask yourself how long would it take to drive to the other side of Florida?

A scary aspect about all this is that in the video he says how to get the oil off - "They have Goo-Gone further down the beach". If you didn't know, Goo-Gone is almost entirely xylene, that stuff's worse for you than the oil itself.

Why are so many people and public officials touching this stuff unprotected? There is going to be a huge leukemia spike in the coming decade. With this sort of mentality it seems like a pretty clear thing to say that Florida is literally killing children with their tourism campaign. Maybe their new motto should be Kill, Baby, Kill! Would not going to the beach be letting the hysterical liberals win?

Stuff like this just make me confused.
"I only went into the water up to my ankles. That's as far as I wanted to go," said Joe Chambers, 28, of West Pensacola as he scrubbed off oily residue from himself and his son, Ethan, 4, in the public showers at Casino Beach. "It doesn't smell like the beach. It smells like a gas station. There are no fish in the water. There's nothing alive in the water. I don't know how public officials can just look at the water and make a call to reopen it for swimming."

Carol Doster of Grand Isle, Miss., said her son Dallas, 12, was frightened by the oil that streaked his legs and arms after a five-minute swim in the Gulf on Friday. "It won't rub off," Doster said.
Fuck! How are they letting people swim in this shit? Come on in kids, the oil's fine!

You people better get down on your knees and pray to the mushroom gods. Pray that your benevolent mercy might again turn the waters sweet. I have friends who live on the East coast and they tell me they are hearing commercials about how Florida beaches are totally safe.. they they swear! Come and swim in their water, it's so cool.

I saw an ad this weekend online with a new spin on the travel plan: "The Gulf Coast: So Much More Than The Beach!" Ha! At the end of the commercial she says "Beach conditions may vary... but we won't get past this unless we all work together!" What they're essentially saying is "So come pay money to get cancer, because your part of the work is dying!" I'm sure Cover them in Crude oil/dispersant is one of the 101 ways to kill your child after giving him a stupid name.

So how could they just reopen the beaches like that? I guess they figure they aren't on the hook for any medical liability for the vast majority of potential deaths. Definitely the deaths of anyone who would get near the water without getting paid for it or otherwise having business with it. It really isn't worth the cost of the effort to stop poor gulf coast residents from swimming in the oil, because it doesn't cost BP any more than them not swimming in it.

Then again... Kids sure like poisons and can't stay away from them..



I'm just wondering if the cancer risk of the crude bath is like "I drink my water from non-bpa free containers/I heat my food up in plastic in the microwave" level or is it "I literally chase my whiskey with benzene." But considering crude actually contains benzene, I'm guessing it's the chasing it all down one. It's such high enough concentrations of it that you want to avoid breathing in the fumes if possible.

I like how they don't even know WHAT it is, let alone if it's bad for them. Imagine that state of blissful obliviousness needed to do that. Oh how I envy them. I just scratch my head when I read stuff like;
"I know this stuff's bad when it gets on animals, but when it gets on our children... I dunno, maybe we just clean it off??"
They really can't be to blame. Hell, even those who are somewhat in the know and listen to stuff like NPR get news like the following where NPR seems to endorse the idea that oil filled beaches are somehow safe.
HANSEN: Health officials actually have been warning people not to swim in some areas off the coast of Alabama and northwest Florida. You mentioned the Alabama beaches being closed. Is it safe in other beaches? I mean, for example, is it safe to swim even if there's no visible signs of oil on the beach?

Prof. LEATHERMAN: Yeah, I think you'll be fine if there's no oil on the beach or in the water. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection points out, even if you come in contact with these tar balls it's not like it's going to be deadly poison. Just wash it off - soap and water will usually do it - and let people know if you come in contact with it.
NPR is the worst/best example of wishy-washy pro-corporatist ivory tower jewish run liberal bullshit. Then again, what else are you going to listen to on the way to the soul-devouring job on your morning commute?

But seriously, NPR is full of shit on this one. You want to know some of the reasons why this shit is just not healthy to touch or handle in any way;
Exposure can occur through skin contact, inhalation of contaminated air or soil, and ingestion of contaminated water or food. Exposure may result in localized toxicity (e.g., irritation of the skin following contact), but many health effects are caused by systemic distribution of chemicals from crude oil, because ingredients can move throughout the body. Exposure varies based on the duration and concentrations in the contaminated material (air, water, soil, fish, etc). Differences in exposure will occur based on location, work and personal activities, age, diet, use of protective equipment, and other factors.

Concurrent exposure to other toxic chemicals at work and home must be considered when evaluating the potential for toxic effects to result from exposure to crude oil chemicals. Exposure to a combination of toxic chemicals, especially if they can damage the same organs in the body, increases the potential for health effects.

Detailed technical information is available on estimating the amount of exposure that people will have under various conditions (e.g., contaminated air inhalation volume) and on evaluations of children's unique exposure conditions: :
Adults (1997): http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recor...17f6564a6e531a3
Children (2003)
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps...-deid=55145.htm

These documents make it very clear that exposure can vary considerably from one person to the next, and that children's exposure is often much higher, in relation to their body weight. What that means is that they may have a much higher dose of toxic chemicals than adults, who are in the same location.

Basic Physiological Effects

Crude oil is a complex mixture of chemicals that have varying abilities to be absorbed into the body through the skin, lungs, and during digestion of food and water. Most components of crude oil enter the bloodstream rapidly when they are inhaled or swallowed. Crude oil contains chemicals that rapidly penetrate the skin and move through cell walls. They can damage cell structures, including DNA, and alter the function of the cells and the organs.

A detailed discussion of the uptake, distribution, toxic effects, and elimination of chemicals in crude oil is summarized in the 1999 CDC publication at: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp123.pdf

One of the chemicals in crude oil that is of highest concern is benzene, because it has long been known to cause rapid toxic effects, and it is carcinogenic and mutagenic. A review the toxic effects and other characteristics of benzene is available at: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp3.pdf. Benzene health effects are discussed under "chronic exposure hazards" below.
And the scary part is that this doesn't even factor in the toxicity of the dispersant and its effects on crude's toxicity. I'm also willing to bet that nobody's studied the effects on people of literally swimming in crude oil and accidentally swallowing it/getting it in your nose and eyes. So if you're a health research or a health scientist, here's a golden opportunity for some lifelong research project for you.

I don't know about you, but when I go to the beach I seem to swallow a gallons worth of water while swimming. These parent's can't ever complain about any sort of bad chemicals BP releases since their gut reaction is to turn around and toss their children into the polluted water.

You really could call these kids Tar Babies and mean it. This all just adds more proof to my conclusion that the mountains are so much better.

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