Scientific American: Toxic Dispersant Use in Gulf is 'Massive, Uncontrolled' Experiment

[kpete]

June 18, 2010
Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?
It remains unclear what impact chemical dispersants will have on sea life--and only the massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico will tell

By David Biello


AERIAL ASSAULT: Some 3.5 million liters of dispersants were applied to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including spraying from aircraft like this U.S. Air Force C-130 on May 5.

Roughly five million liters of dispersants have now been used to break up the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, making this the largest use of such chemicals in U.S. history. If it continues for 10 months, as long as Mexico's Ixtoc 1 blowout in 1979 in the same region, the Macondo well disaster has a good chance of achieving the largest global use of these chemicals, surpassing 10 million liters.

And there is no doubt that dispersants are toxic: Both types of the dispersal compound COREXIT used in the Gulf so far are capable of killing or depressing the growth of a wide range of aquatic species, ranging from phytoplankton to fish. "It's a trade-off decision to lessen the overall environmental impact," explained marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at a press conference on May 12. "When an oil spill occurs, there are no good outcomes."

The trade-off in this case is the addition of toxic chemicals in a bid to protect the marshes of Louisiana and the beaches of Florida. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for one, has become concerned about the toxicity of the most-used dispersant at the Gulf of Mexico spill—COREXIT 9500—and ordered BP to look at alternatives. (COREXIT 9527 was used earlier during the spill, but it was discontinued because it was considered too toxic.)

The problem? The EPA's industry-generated data is unclear as to the relative toxicity of various dispersants. "If you think the data on COREXIT is bad, try to find any decent toxicology data on the alternatives," says toxicologist Carys Mitchelmore of the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, who helped write a 2005 National Research Council (NRC) report on dispersants. "I couldn't compare and contrast which one was more toxic than the other based on that."

more (plus links):
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-using-dispersants-fighting-pollution-with-pollution

[cliffordu]

1. I'd love to take a half gallon of that shit to their next

board meeting in a jug and pull off the cap.

Breathe deep.

Motherfucking stupid sons of bitches.

[Catherina]

2. I guess this is it. No more good news.

Turtles burning.

Gutting reform for CEO pay.

Corexit.

Dead dolphins.

Cheering for the team in the face of death.

Yeah it's toxic. 4 times more toxic than the oil it disperses to where we can't clean it up anymore but the sea life absorbs it, breathes it, eats it and then some tell us it's safe to it because the most fish are pelagic without acknowledging that the oil and dispersants are the opposite of pelagic.

We are so in trouble.

[flyarm]

3. My question has been ..how and who had this shit ready from the get go to disperse?

3.5 million gallons had to be brought to the Gulf..it had to be manufactured..how did that all happen so quickly..and yet boats with Skimmers couldn't get to the gulf..and the ones that did were scrapped and done away with..so who ..and how did 3.5 million gallons..folks that is a shit load of chemicals..that had to be gotten down to the Gulf..but who has that much manufactured just sitting aroun and how did they get it all to the Gulf so fast??????????

Because it got to the Gulf damn fast within a short time of the explosion..

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Could BP possiblycare less about the people and other life forms they are

destroying? I think not.

[flyarm]

6. nope..nor has our government..until it got too much publicity..and won't stop gushing,,

and probably won't ever stop gushing..


from a Gulf Coast resident.

[flyarm]

5. Jane, Jane , Jane...this is no spill..this is a volcanic eruption!

Jane Lubchenco..this is a gusher of the like this world has never seen..please sop with the spill shit already..