Worry About Dispersant Rises as Men in Work Crew Complain of Health Problems

Summary: The dispersant the BP has been using to manage the massive oil spill in the Gulf may have negative health impacts. Reports of workers who had handled the dispersant and then been admitted to the hospital raised these concerns. It is unclear whether the chemical actually caused their symptoms, or if they felt sick due to dehydration or some other cause. The EPA requested that BP reduce the amount of dispersant they are releasing each day. The future environmental and health impacts are unknown, but potentially harmful.

Personal Response: It is concerning that the future effects of the dispersants are unknown, and the chemical has never been used on such a great scale. Even more disconcerting is the fact that the dispersant has been banned in Britain, but continues to be dumped into the Gulf at alarming rates. Some people may argue that the dispensing of the dispersant should be stopped immediately until we know how it will impact the ecosystem, wildlife, and human health. If we continue, the devastation from the cleanup could become even greater than the oil spill itself. Still, there are proponents of the dispersant who think that if the dispersant use is discontinued, then the oil spill will become unmanageable and damage the coast irreparably. There is the threat that a severe storm or a hurricane could bring the oil far inland and result in the death of the wetlands. One must ask what comes first – do we value human health over the environment? What is the best way to handle a crisis? Should we go with an immediate solution or take the time to develop the pros and cons of each option? For now, I think that it is best for BP to discontinue use of the dispersant because the potential environmental and health impacts are too frightening and unknown for me to agree with distributing enormous quantities of something we don’t know much about. Other methods of containing the oil should be developed, such as using booms or less harmful dispersants. Surely, BP should be punished legally and financially for causing such environmental harm; as news comes out, it becomes clearer that perhaps the oil spill could have been prevented. I hope that BP does not escape the consequences of their actions, because they deserve to be punished.

Kaufman, Leslie, and Elisabeth Rosenthal. "Worry About Dispersant Rises as Men in Work Crew Complain
of Health Problems." New York Times 27 May 2010: n. pag. Web. 28 May 2010.
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Link for article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/science/earth/28workers.html?ref=science