Olbermann: Exxon Valdez Survivor To Gulf Workers - RUN AWAY

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 05:44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJAwc7QV_QA   Posted on YouTube: June 26, 2010 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 26, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 1340

 
MSNBC Countdown w/ KEITH OLBMERMANN - June 25, 2010: Merle Savage, environmental activist and veteran of the Valdez clean-up says the biggest health threat to Gulf clean-up is respiratory, based on her own experience in Alaska.

OLBERMANN: "If BP is not adequately training its own workers, or giving them the proper equipment, or, as we heard earlier in the process, that they were threatening to fire anybody who brought their own respirators, or protective gears, or haz-mat suits, what can workers do to protect themselves?"

SAVAGE: "Well... not go.

I had a mother call me from Florida and her son was going with a friend of his. and after talking with me, he decided not to and I was thankful because for $15 an hour, your life isn't worth it. I would... well, I guess they're not letting them wear respirators. I don't know what to tell workers to do except 'don't go.' The money isn't worth it, believe me. I have suffered for 22 years."

[truedelphi]

1. If some terrorist group sprayed riccin into the air ducts of a building

And put the lives of several hundred people at risk, They would be hauled off and put in a rendition situation.

Here we have the largest environmental disaster ever, and the presiding excecutive is able to go off and attend a yacht race.

While his subordinates FORBID the use of respirators for the workers.

If these actions by BP do not call for some type of Presidential Executive Order, I don't know what does.

[KT2000]

2. thank you so much

for including a synopsis. Watching a video online is a long process on my connection (and others too).


Glad to see the people who survived (for now) Valdez are trying to help protect the people in the Gulf. Our government and BP are not doing a very good job.

[happy_liberal]

3. K&R

People should be evacuating.

[pam4water]

4. Where is Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). They should be there monitoring.

They should have been there form day one. Monitoring air quality and making sure no one was intimidated out of weight gear. That is where they were created for. ANd where is the EPA for that matter.

[Shallah Kali]

5. Air quality on *land* is already unsafe - link

Human Health Tragedy in the Making: Gulf Response Failing to Protect People


Riki Ott Marine toxicologist and Exxon Valdez survivor RikiOtt.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riki-ott/human-health-tragedy-in-t_b_582655.html


Fishermen responders who are working BP's giant uncontrolled slick in the Gulf are reporting bad headaches, hacking coughs, stuffy sinuses, sore throats, and other symptoms. The Material Safety Data Sheets for crude oil and the chemical products being used to disperse and break up the slick -- underwater and on the surface -- list these very illnesses as symptoms of overexposure to volatile organic carbons (VOCs), hydrogen sulfide, and other chemicals boiling off the slick.

When the fishermen come home, they find their families hacking, snuffling, and complaining of sore throats and headaches, too. There is a good reason for the outbreak of illnesses sweeping across this area.

Last weekend, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted its air quality monitoring data from the greater Venice, Louisiana, area. The data showed federal standards were being exceeded by 100- to 1,000-fold for VOCs, and hydrogen sulfide, among others--and that was on shore. These high levels could certainly explain the illnesses and were certainly a cause for alarm in the coastal communities.

I wrote an article based on EPA's information. So did chemist Wilma Subra with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN). Baton Rouge-based LEAN is an advocate of public health and worker safety, and a trusted source of information on chemicals, exposure, and safety monitoring throughout this region.

http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/air.html#data

snip

The federal agencies responsible for monitoring public health and worker safety need to take aggressive action to prevent human tragedy. EPA should do continuous monitoring of air quality across the oil-impacted Gulf states--rather than only in communities where the oil is coming ashore--and EPA should post all the data it collects. It is public information and the people have a right to know about a toxic menace in their communities. If air quality continues to exceed public safety standards, the federal government has an obligation to act to evacuate people-just as it would in response to a hurricane, except at BP's expense.

[Shallah Kali]

6. Merle Savage's site link

INFORMATION PERTAINING TO HEALTH ISSUES OF OIL SPILL CLEANUP WORKERS
http://www.silenceinthesound.com/medicalissues.shtml

Riki Ott marine toxocologist on Valdez and current oil disasters:

Background and Historical Information
Information from Riki Ott, PhD
http://www.rikiott.com/spillinfo.php

[susu369]

7. How primitive; how utterly stupid

There has got to be machinery that will sift through the sand and pick up the tar balls, rather than humans. Then they are throwing the stuff on a piece of plastic (PLASTIC) and note the cart driving off with a pile high of plastic. Where is that going?