Huh. And yet, it’s been mansplained to me that the dispersants were no more risky than using dish detergent!
A new study reports that workers exposed to crude oil and dispersants used during the Gulf oil spill cleanup display significantly altered blood profiles, liver enzymes, and somatic symptoms compared to an unexposed control group. Investigators found that platelet counts were significantly decreased in the exposed group, while both hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were notably increased. Their findings, reported in The American Journal of Medicine, suggest that oil spill cleanup workers are at risk for developing hepatic or blood-related disorders.
Poisons are only harmful if we take them into our bodies. So the government should issue every man, woman, and child a biohazard suit and breathing apparatus to wear whenever we leave our homes. Or maybe even when we’re in our homes? Problem solved.
Please. Basically this report revealed still another “externality”, whereby nature, workers, and anybody who is not a member of the 1% gets dumped on.
So, in a way, what else is new?
“Externalities” are what corporations use to dump costs and risks onto everybody and everything else, rather than deal with the cost and risk responsibly.
Let’s see – profits and power versus the Gulf of Mexico as a functioning ecosystem and the long term health of some expendable workers?
That got debated for about 5 nanoseconds in the BP boardroom – and would have gotten the same consideration in any other boardroom, for that matter.