STOP DISPERSANT USE NOW! - PRESS CONFERENCE Outside Deepwater Horizon Joint Incident Command Center, NOLA with Photo Op, Statements, Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  – July 21, 2010
Emergency Committee to Stop Gulf Oil Disaster
Press Contact: 504.644.7214 – Interviews available
www.stopgulfoildisaster.org  ---  stopgulfoildisaster@gmail.com
ATTN: News Desk
STOP DISPERSANT USE NOW!
What:   Press Conf.  & Photo Opportunity Against Use of Dispersants
             Statements by Groups Opposed to Dispersant Use
Where: Outside Deepwater Horizon Joint Incident Command Center
              1250 Poydras, New Orleans, LA
When:  Thursday, July 22, 2010, Noon-1pm

Despite the warnings of a host of marine scientists, toxicologists, environmentalists and residents of the Gulf Coast, the EPA gave BP the green light to use, up to now, 1.8 million gallons of the toxic Dispersant Corexit 9527 and 9500, threatening Gulf ecosystems, marine life, the food chain, and human health.
"I don't want dispersant to become the Agent Orange of the Gulf oil spill",.-- Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, during questioning of Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Jackson.

“’Kill the Ocean, Save the Beaches,’ a ‘Trade-Off’ decision. Under what logic does this work? The Gulf is the Mother and the Estuaries are the nurseries. If the Mother dies, there will be no children to incubate. The reality is the oil and chemical dispersants are entering our estuaries as we speak. The ‘Trade-Off’ logic FAILED.”.-- Clint Guidry, quoted in article by journalist Dahr Jamail, July 11th, 2010, "Hell Has Come to South Louisiana". Guidry is the Shrimp Harvester Representative on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force.

Oil and dispersant have entered the food chain, and hydrocarbons have been detected in crab larvae. A Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries biologist expressed this concern recently:"We are quite concerned that we will see significant mortality of larvae as they encounter oil or dispersants." (Times Picayune, Bob Marshall, 7/20/2010)

In addition, there have been reports that BP is spraying dispersant in Barataria Bay. Spraying that close to marsh habitat will possibly damage our estuaries for years to come.

Further, it is a known fact that oil mixed with dispersant can actually prove to be more toxic than oil, or dispersant, alone. (See fact sheet, below).

It appears that no one is protecting the people and ecology of the Gulf Coast. Not the EPA, NOAA, the Coast Guard, or our politicians. The criminal corporation that caused this disaster, BP, is calling the shots. The use of Corexit is a crime on top of a crime. It is a wonton act of Ecocide in full view and with approval from our government.

The Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster demands:

•  BP should immediately cease the use of dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico and Barataria Bay.
• Ongoing Government and independent testing should take place on the waters of the Gulf and Barataria Bay to measure the potentially toxic levels of dispersant and oil.
• Marine life should be tested thoroughly for the presence of dispersant and oil.
• Seafood that has the potential to wind up on our plates should be thoroughly, chemically tested for dispersant, not just for oil contamination, as is currently being done.
•  In addition to paying remediation for oil damages, BP and the EPA should pay remediation damages for the use of dispersant.
• All avenues of bioremediation on the oil and dispersant should be explored.
•  Complete and full transparency should be the order of the day when it comes to testing for the presence of oil and dispersant in our estuaries, our Gulf, our marine life, our people.

      ////

Nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant chemicals have been poured into the Gulf of Mexico, even though scientists oppose their use!

“We oppose the use of chemical dispersants in the Gulf, and urgently recommend an immediate halt to their application. We believe that Corexit dispersants, in combination with crude oil, pose grave health risks to marine life and human health, and threaten to deplete critical niches in the Gulf food web that may never recover”

•  Oil, when combined with dispersants in the water column is more toxic to marine species than either oil or dispersant alone.

• Chemicals in crude oil and dispersants can cause a wide range of health effects in people and wildlife. Crude oil has many highly toxic chemical ingredients, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), that can damage every system in the body.

• The use of dispersants is a large-scale toxic experiment on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem that runs contrary to a precautionary approach, an experiment where the costs may ultimately outweigh the benefits.

• Corexits are oil industry-insider products, and are ranked by the EPA as more toxic and less effective than other approved dispersants, which has raised questions about their use in the Gulf (Scarlett et al 2005).

• The combination of Corexit and crude oil can be more toxic than either alone, since they contain many ingredients that target the same organs in the body. In addition, Corexit dispersants facilitate the entry of oil into the body, into cells, which can result in damage to every organ system (Burns and Harbut, 2010).

• Exposure to chemicals in crude oil and dispersants can occur through skin contact, inhalation of contaminated air or soil/sand, and ingestion of contaminated water or food.

• Potential human health effects include burning skin, difficulty breathing, headaches, heart palpitations, dizziness, confusion, and nausea — which have already been reported by some workers — as well as chemical pneumonia and internal bleeding (Burns and Harbut, 2010, US EPA 2010).

• Coastal communities could also experience more extreme health consequences, including long-term neurological effects on children and developing fetuses, and hereditary mutations. As of June 21, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reported 143 cases of illness "believed to be related to oil exposure. The most common symptoms were headache, nausea, throat irritation, vomiting, cough and difficulty breathing.

• The combination of crude oil and dispersants damages the marine life food chain and can set the stage for “trophic cascades,” causing the collapse of higher organisms (Peterson et al. 2003).

• Many scientists suspect the worst of the impacts on the gulf are yet to come and will not be apparent without deliberate tracking and scientific assessment.

• EPA and NOAA have studied impacts of dispersants and oil but continue to withhold data from results of these studies.

This document provided by scientists ends with 5 critical demands, beginning with an IMMEDIATE HALT to the use of chemical dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico!

http://1planet1ocean.org/scientists-consensus-statement-on-the-use-of-chemical-dispersants-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/

Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster

http://www.stopgulfoildisaster.org    504-644-7214