Barack
Obama is about to give corporations the right to completely thumb
their noses at public safety issues. Nothing and no one is safe,
immune, or exempt.
One
planet. One life.
---Mike
Ruppert
ExxonMobil
Arkansas oil spill poses health risks for locals
After
210,000 gallons of heavy crude spilled into an Arkansas community,
ExxonMobil assured residents that toxic chemicals have remained at
safe levels. But locals say they are suffering from deteriorating
health conditions and trouble breathing.
RT,
14
May, 2013
Residents
of Mayflower, Ark., have reported difficulty breathing, sinus
problems, burning noses and eyes, extreme fatigue, headaches,
stomachaches and unexplained sore throats – often accompanied by a
putrid stench.
ExxonMobil,
the owner of the Pegasus pipeline that ruptured on March 29, claims
that toxic chemicals in the air are at safe levels and no risk to the
local community.
But
resident complaints, health surveys and air samples tell a different
story. Air samples from March 30 contained about 30 toxic chemicals
in the small town of Mayflower, according to a press release by the
Global Community Monitor (GCM), which conducted the independent
tests.
The
air samples contained chemicals including benzene, toluene,
ethylbenzene, n-hexane and xylenes. Many of these chemicals can cause
cancer and reproductive health problems. Breathing n-hexene can cause
permanent damage to the nervous system and cause numbness in the
genital regions, muscular weakness, blurred vision, and headaches.
The
chemicals found in the samples are “regulated under the 1990
Federal Clean Air Act amendments as the most toxic of all known
airborne chemicals,” according to the release.
“The
chemicals detected in the samples match the health impacts
experienced both in the immediate neighborhood of the spill, and in
the surrounding community,” Wilma Subra, an environmental health
consultant, told The Huffington Post.
Furthermore,
the chemicals are most likely to affect young children, since they
are much more sensitive to lower levels of toxins than adults. Even
if the state considers air toxins to be at a legally safe level, it
may only be ‘safe’ for adults.
Mayflower
resident Genieve Long told HuffPost that her 5-year-old son has been
“wheezing and struggling to breathe” at night, starting a few
days after the oil spill. She would constantly wake up panicked,
fearing for her son’s health.
And
at the local elementary school, eight children were sent home last
week due to breathing problems that were accompanied by a strong odor
across Mayflower.
“A
lot of the released chemicals – benzene, hydrogen sulfide, toluene
– are still extremely toxic, especially to children, the elderly
and pregnant women, at very low levels,” said April Lane, who is in
charge of health and safety at the school and has also been
collecting health reports from local residents since the pipeline
ruptured.
“Even
four weeks later, residents are still feeling symptoms from the
chemical exposure,” she said in a GCM press release. “People have
consistently talked about gastrointestinal problems, headaches,
respiratory problems, skin irritation including chemical burns, and
extreme fatigue.”
Sherry
Appleman, a resident who lives off of Lake Conway outside of the
evacuation zone, said she herself has been suffering from
deteriorating health conditions. She blames her symptoms on her
proximity to the lake, which is now covered in thick, sticky bitumen.
ExxonMobil previously alleged that the lake was not affected by the
spill – but dead fish, ducks and wildlife indicate otherwise.
“I
couldn’t breathe,” Appleman told HuffPost, describing a night she
woke up shortly after the spill. “My throat and nose and eyes were
burning really bad. I could smell that horrible smell. I got really
scared.”
Appleman
said she suffered headaches, stomachaches, and a sore throat for nine
days. She also witnessed three men, equipped with a video screen and
computer, pulling dead fish from the lake in the middle of the night.
And
although Exxon and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality
denied that the spill could sicken residents, National Resources
Defense Council communications associate Rocky Kistner told KATV that
they did little to investigate it.
“I
haven’t seen a lot of health authorities going into the
neighborhoods and asking people directly, knocking on doors trying to
find out well what are people experiencing in terms of their health,”
he said.
At
a rally in front of the State Department last week, Long asked
Secretary of State John Kerry to travel to Mayflower and take a look
at the aftermath of the spill to see why transporting Canadian oil
sands might be a bad idea. Even though Washington, D.C. is a large
city in comparison to Mayflower, Long said the air smelled cleaner
and purer than what she experiences at home in Arkansas.
"When
I came back home, the putrid stench was still not gone," she
said
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.