dispersants
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With Gulf-spill facts in short supply, spin takes center stage
You spin me right round …Photo: Pip WilsonFor all the fire-hose coverage of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it’s a story with startlingly few known facts. We don’t know how much oil has actually spilled out. We don’t know where or when it will hit land. We don’t know exactly what’s in the chemical […]
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Chemical dispersants being used in Gulf clean-up are potentially toxic
Coast Guard workers spray Corexit in a 2007 Berkeley, California, cleanup. It is not yet being used on Gulf of Mexico beaches. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)We finally know the main two dispersants that BP and the U.S. government are using to treat the ongoing Gulf spill. Both, by their maker’s own admission, have the “potential […]
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Gulf Coast oil spill: Health questions
Cleanup crews are getting the highest exposures to both the oil spill itself and chemical dispersants.Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Dr. Gina Solomon provides answers to the health questions raised by the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig explosion and the efforts being made to contain it. How do you think […]
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Under the wrong conditions, oil spills are forever
The massive clean-up efforts for the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound. (Photo courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council) “A senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 […]
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What are we dumping into the Gulf to ‘fix’ the oil spill?
A 2006 oil-dispersant-spraying test run by the Air Force Reserve Command’s 910th Airlift Wing, currently deployed to the Gulf to support the oil spill recovery effort. (U.S. Air Force file photo) In addition to the indignity of oil oozing into its depths at a rate of at least 5,000 barrels per day, the Gulf of […]
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Waterkeepers question use of dispersant chemicals at oil-spewing wellhead
The chief executive of BP says crews have been able to reduce the amount of oil reaching the Gulf’s surface from a massive underwater leak by using chemicals at the gusher’s source — but environmental advocates are raising questions about the plan’s safety. “We are adamantly opposed to dispersants being used at the well-head as […]
