Friday, March 25, 2011

BP Clean-Up Crews Sick & Dying

Here's a story the national news media seems to be ignoring:
This young woman, Jennifer Rexford, BP-hired oil cleanup worker, is documenting her illness from the toxins in the gulf with her video camera. If you think it’s just headaches or something like that, watch this. Severe neurological damage. Doctors and hospitals refuse to acknowledge this with anyone there who’s sick.  And there are apparently tens of thousands now.

Paul Doomm is mentioned twice in this video.  He is a 22 year old who swam in and ate from the Gulf all summer, against his grandmother’s advice.  He has been hospitalized after seeing 94 doctors who don’t know what to do for him.  His  blood had the highest amount of PAH’s ever documented.

Shocking and sad videos at the link. Here’s one:



We all knew this was coming. I did. I told my mother in law not to go to the Gulf of Mexico (she didn’t listen). I won’t eat shrimp from there. We have poisoned the Gulf and the people who live there, because some rich assholes decided oil is more important than people. Think the free hand of the market will save those now sickened by toxic chemicals from oil and the dispersants used?

Let’s also remember that Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican of course, defeated a bill that would increase BP’s liability from $75 million to $10 billion. So all of those sick people ... well, I guess “the best healthcare system in the world” will absorb all of those costs. Thank God they can’t be denied healthcare because getting poisoned by your corporate overlords is a pre-existing condition -- yet. I'm sure if the Republicans had their way and destroyed ACA, hundreds of people would be facing severe neurological damage and no health insurance.

And let’s also remember that as horrible as the BP oil spill was (and still is), imagine if it were a nuclear accident, like what’s unfolding in Japan.

But God forbid we should learn from our mistakes! Let's just keep chugging along as if nothing happened and continue to tell ourselves that solar and wind energy aren't economical solutions. It always looks that way when you socialize the costs of the dirty alternative.

MORE... Baby dolphins dying, too....