Health Risks from Oil Spill: "Some of the Most Toxic Chemicals that We Know" , "Every Place Can be Ground Zero", CDC Advises "Everyone" to Avoid Oil

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An "epidemiologist" is a scientist who studies
diseases among groups of people.

So the following quote
from Bloomberg caught my eye:

Shira Kramer, an epidemiologist who has conducted
research for the petroleum industry on the health consequences of
exposure to petroleum, said she is concerned that the risks are being
downplayed.

“It’s completely scientifically
dishonest to pooh-pooh the potential here when you are talking about
some of the most toxic chemicals that we know,” said Kramer....

“When you talk about community exposure, you are
talking about exposures in unpredictable ways and to subpopulations that
may be more highly susceptible than others, such as those of
reproductive age, people who are immuno-compromised, children or
fetuses.

‘With the World Trade Center, there
have been unpredictable adverse health effects to the populations that
were exposed and not just the workers,” she said. “In this case, we
have a soup of chemicals from the crude, chemicals from the dispersants
and pollutants that were already in the water. Who can say how they
will interact?”

Crude
oil contains such powerful cancer-causing chemicals benzene,
toluene,
heavy
metals and
arsenic.

In addition, BP has poured millions of gallons of the
highly-toxic
dispersant Corexit into the Gulf. And see this.

Bloomberg
also notes that the Centers for Disease Control has issued health
warnings about the oil:

“Although the oil may contain some chemicals that could
cause harm to an unborn baby under some conditions, the CDC has
reviewed sampling data from the EPA and feels that the levels of these
chemicals are well below the level that could generally cause harm to
pregnant women or their unborn babies,” the CDC said on its website.

While they suggest there is no threat, the CDC
simultaneously advised “everyone,
including pregnant women” to avoid spill-affected areas.

While we must keep the risk in perspective - and
while this does not mean that Gulf coast residents will
suffer mass illness due to the oil spill - we should not underestimate
the risks either. As Bloomberg notes:

“Oil is a complex mixture containing substances like
benzene, heavy metals, arsenic, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons
-- all known to cause human health problems such as cancer, birth
defects or miscarriages,” said Kenneth Olden, founding dean of New
York’s CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, who is
monitoring a panel on possible delayed effects. “The potential here is
huge and we have to be diligent about protecting the public health and
these workers.”

For the public at large, the
threat is less clear because of the uncertainty about the degree of
exposure, Lioy said in a telephone interview.

“I don’t think the levels are high enough for concern,” he said. “But
this is an ongoing event. Every day is Day One. Every place can be
Ground Zero.”

Because
hurricanes
could spread the oil inland, it may indeed be true that almost
every place on the Gulf Coast can be Ground Zero.

Other Oil Updates:

Robot damaged cap, BP removes cap, oil now GUSHING UNCHECKED.

BP
Had the Technology to Accurately Measure Amount of Oil Leaking into the
Gulf 2 Years Ago

Comments

[cougar_w]

Heh, now that's 12 kinds of funny. I've got real fava beans growing in the front yard, under a real grape vine. How do you like that for an opener to a short story? You know what, I'm gonna lay up in the bed tonight and write that in 1000 words and post it somewhere and post the link here some day.

I don't create horror, I'm not that smart. But everyone else is creating it and I just record it.

[hangemhigh]

CW:

don't want to go col kurtz on you but part of the mission statement all ZH'ers share is the absolute responsibility to counteract/counterbalance the carefully calculated, artful psy-war ops that constitute the contemporary version of 'the horror of it all'.

these are the info wars and we must win................

[bingaling]

Apparently you don't have to swim in it you just have to breathe around it and you will get all of the above .

http://www.sciencecorps.org/crudeoilhazards.htm

[RockyRacoon]

Nice link.... thank you.

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

Thank you GW!!!

[Augustus]

I expected that you would be one of those who needed to be warned.  Money well spent if it only saves one idiot, right?

[cougar_w]

You are one god-damned cruel son of a bitch.

But my saying that just made your day, didn't it?

Safe in your easy chair. The bell will toll, son.

[Cistercian]

 Justice is severe, and not without it's irony.He works for the tools that think the "little people" will freak-out and run amok if they knew the truth.

  But he will deal with the legacy of this disaster along with the rest of us...and get to see first hand the stupidity of not only his employers, but his as well for going along with them.And it will be painful...

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Are you trolling from Unified Command, the US offices of BP America or downtown London? I ask because you seem fixated on this subject and your message is pretty much the same regardless of the author.

In fact, I just spent 30 minutes reading your comments over the past few weeks and I must admit, your sarcasm, ad hominem attacks and general disrespect for others is spewed pretty evenly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

[merehuman]

Augustus please change your tampon

[Augustus]

Take Barney's tool out of your ear so you can hear my truth.

[Augustus]

There is no one who posts on this blog that emits more spittle and nonsense than you.  Are you trolling from Moscow or Gaza?  I ask because you regularly regurgitate the same nonsense as your master.  The post above is simply more evidence that you will write anything to attempt to silence truth.  View that definition of Ad Hominem and reflect upon how it applies to your writings.  You are an exemplary user of the method.

[cougar_w]

You are a waste of oxygen. Go breathe on another planet, this one doesn't need you and can ill-afford your putrid exhalations.

[Augustus]

I love it,

I'll send you some chemicals that will allow you to save the planet from you and any degenerative offspring.  It is free for idiots.

Your address is?

[mtomato2]

Good ol' CG.

Thanks for doing what I simply didn't have the time or patience to do.

Troll.  Augustus.

I suspected it, earlier.  I'm certain of it, now.

Rawk on, mah bruthuh.

[BumpSkool]

+100

... so f-ing obvious...

rank

[RockyRacoon]

First we get gold trolls.  Now we get oil trolls.  

What solution is there?  (That's rhetorical.)

[Species8472]

benzene, toluene, the gas you pump into your car is full of that stuff. You do use the self service pumps, right?

[cougar_w]

In California, gasoline is a known listed carcinogen. The pumps have stickers all over them about it. Pregnant women are given instructions on how to pump gas using the handle catch so they can walk away and not to breathe the stuff.

Your point was what? That people don't protect themselves?

People are kept in the dark. They don't know what it is that kills them.

[Augustus]

There needs to be a warning at each pump island telling them not to swim in the gasoline.  Should they also include don't drink it?   Some of these butt heads probably believe they can determine the octane by the smell.  Something for Barry O to start acting upon.

[Panafrican Funk...]

I'm pretty sure he's just saying "hey, look at this Bloomberg article, it's actually pretty decent/informative and illustrates that the MSM isn't universally braindead on this issue."  As this is a trading, economics, and current events blog site, this type of post seems appropriate to that scope.

[A Nanny Moose]

Once upon a time, in a country far away, lead was put into gas tanks, and burned away to get to the grocery store. Yet we are still here.

[blindman]

with the evident neurological impairment associated

with the resulting poisoning,  well established

and ubiquitous.

[JuicedGamma]

And then the evil EPA said it was poison and so engines were invented that didn't knock with out leaded gasoline. 

But WTF is your point?  That it's ok to poison and pollute without regard.  Have a look at what's going on in China, welcome to your future.

[BumpSkool]

+1

[The Mighty Monarch]

One could argue that lead in gas tanks adequately explains most politicians today. Or the millions of dimwits that eagerly await the next season of "The Bachelor".

[CustomersMan]

Several weeks back a woman who was crossing the Tampa Bay Bridge noticed something unusual. She said it started to drizzle and when she put on the wipers it smeared. Once she got off the bridge she got out and wiped it off. It was oil mixed in the drizzle.

Now people inland have reported by the Gulf, that it's raining oil. There are some video's.

The hurricane's have not spread this to the rest of the country yet.

[QQQBall]

Their stories will be relegated to Page #36 in the fish wrap with an "expert" opining that they simply mistook road grease for oil rain. Nothing to see here; move along.

When the paint starts peeling on a massive numbr of cars, it will be sluffed off as usual wear and tear, perhaps exacerbated by unusually warm or cold weather conditions, unusually wet or dry winter, or sunspots, or whatever.

[AR15AU]

Fear mongering.

[MarketTruth]

Just wait, even without the mythical Moses character it could lead to fireballs (rain) from the sky.

[resipsaloquacious]

GW,

Everyday with rumors and suppositions, possibilities and conjecture.  We know its a fucking toxic shitstorm down there, but until you have some real facts you are not being useful.

For example, I think all of us here could have sussed out that pregnant women should not bathe in crude.  But thanks, anyway.

[merehuman]

I apologize for George Washingtons blunder of putting these sordid facts in midstream. George , how dare you warn us?! Especially since the president assured us to go and get some of that good fish.

5.5 canada east coast, oil rain and waiting on katla.

[mtomato2]

Yeah, but you gotta admit...  "Sussed out" is a pretty good expression.  Made me laugh like hell.

[George Washington]

Katla, probably ... but hopefully not

Laki

(although the cooling effect - if any - from the ash from Laki could cancel out any warming effect - if any - from the methane being released from the oil spill)

[WaterWings]

GW,

I was thinking about the moving truck rental business down there. After googling I called a Ryder shop down in Alabama to ask, the gentleman first wanted to know who I was and I said I wasn't with the press; just curious. He said that business has picked up in the last couple of months and "don't know why", which is odd considering obvious circumstances. I wonder if it is summer moves in general or oil related? I didn't ask, assuming it could be pretty sensitive. Thanked him for his time.

Can't get a very good idea with a sample of 1 though, I suppose.

[QQQBall]

He can't figure out why? LMAO!

[Duuude]

..."Advised...everyone..."

[Augustus]

Geo Wash,

Where is that detailed scare story on the dangers of the Sigsby Salt?

You find it news that extended contact with crude is not good for your health?  Don't drink gasoline either, even if it does have some alky in it.  If they had warned you "Don't suck on a tail pipe" would that have been news?

[bingaling]

so your comparing the water in the Gulf to gasoline and the air in the area to carbon monoxide ? I agree with you . Extended contact would be what ?

Hopefully you have read this http://www.sciencecorps.org/crudeoilhazards.htm and it will change your attitude . Read the Acute exposure especially. This should be reported especially to those in the area who are breathing this shit daily .

[George Washington]

Dear Augustus,

I didn't intend my mention of Sigsby Salt and turbidite sands to be a scare story.  I was simply mentioning that anyone who doesn't know the geology of the oil-rich regions in the Gulf (including the fact that there are loose materials hundreds or a thousand feet down from the seafloor) will not have a good gut feeling about why it's hard to cap this monster.

[Augustus]

Is it you claim now that the Sigsby salt is thousands of feet of loose material? 

BP stated from about day two that the only way to actually stop the flow was a relief well.  They are making reasonable progress on that.  It will be no different from any other relief well kill.

[blindman]

except the degree of damage to the casing is

a factor and may be a factor that inhibits

the attempt to overcome the upward pressure,

depending on the location and nature of said

damage.  with all the information available

there are a handful of facts that will become

evidently decisive and we don't have this information and, perhaps, neither does bp

or the "government".    

[George Washington]

Drilling Relief Wells is Tricky

Remember, there is probably damage beneath the sea floor. A misstep by BP could make things much worse.

Drilling relief wells is extremely difficult.

As I wrote on June 5th:

Many technical experts have said that the first attempts to complete the relief well in August could miss entirely on the first try, as it is difficult to intersect the blown-out well at the precise location and angle needed.

As PBS notes:

Several experts have compared [intersecting the leaking well with the relief well] to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate two miles underground.

***

The ... challenge is to exactly intercept the original well bore, which is only about a foot across. If they miss on the first attempt, they'll need to back up slightly, plug the hole they just made, and try again. Each attempt could take several days. [David Rensink, the incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists] says that the chances that they'll hit the well bore correctly on the first try are "virtually nil."

"If they're within 20 feet of it, that would be pretty good," he says. However, each attempt will reduce the uncertainty and get them closer, and Rensink says that he's "very certain" that the relief well will work eventually.

"The reason is that they're going to keep at it until they make it work," he says.

If the current relief wells fail, it could be until December or early next year until a correctly-positioned relief well can be completed.

Indeed, ABC News implies that even after the relief well is completed, the Gulf oil may keep on flowing for months. Specifically, ABC points out:

Past experience in the Gulf of Mexico has been sobering. In 1979, a Mexican-owned rig called Ixtoc-1 suffered a blowout and collapsed, and 140 million gallons of oil escaped into the water. Pemex, the Mexican oil company, drilled two relief wells -- and even then oil kept escaping for three months after the first one was finished.

Similarly, MSNBC writes:

If the [Ixtoc] disaster serves as a precedent, the BP spill could continue even after the two relief wells are expected to be finished in August.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich writes:

A petroleum engineer who’s worked in the oil industry tells me [that] a recent blow-out off the coast of Australia required five pressure relief wells to successfully shut it down.

And Spiegel reports today that there are many dangers with completing the relief wells:

Independent experts warn that relief wells, like any well, are not without risk. "More oil could leak than before, because the field is being drilled into again," says Fred Aminzadeh, a geophysicist at the University of Southern California. Ira Leifer, a geochemist at the University of California in Santa Barbara, voices similar concerns: "In the worst case, we would suddenly be dealing with two spills, and we'd have twice the problem."

***

Leifer is a member of a team of experts deployed by US President Barack Obama to estimate the volume of oil currently flowing in the Gulf of Mexico.

***

BP's most recent efforts to stop the flow of oil have only made the situation worse, says Leifer. The engineers' attempt to seal off the well from above, using a method known as "top kill," failed and only enlarged the borehole, according to Leifer. Now, he adds, there is almost nothing stopping the oil from flowing out of the well.

***

As straightforward as it sounds, this approach [i.e. killing a spill by drilling relief wells] has not always been easy to implement in the past. The disaster in the Timor Sea, for example, ended in a debacle. It took engineer five tries to even find the borehole under the sea floor. Shortly before the end, the West Atlas oilrig went up in flames, after all.

Repeat of History?

Another case is also a warning sign for BP. In June 1979, engineers with the Mexican oil company Pemex lost control of the Ixtox I, an exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico. Just as BP is now attempting to do, engineers at the time drilled two relief wells.

***

Is history repeating itself? The spill in the Macondo oil field could also continue to gush uncontrollably well beyond BP's August deadline. Pemex Director Carlos Morales, currently providing BP with technical advice, expects the spill to continue for another "four to five months." Leifer also believes that the disaster on the sea floor could drag on "until late fall."

Although the BP engineers have already completed two-thirds of the first relief well, it is extremely difficult to find the out-of-control well in the middle of the bedrock, says David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

"You're trying to intersect the well bore, which is about a foot wide, with another well bore, which is about a foot wide," Rensink said recently. Hitting it with the first attempt, he adds, "would truly be like winning the lottery."

Instead, the engineers will presumably have to repeatedly pull back the drill head to adjust the direction, Rensink predicts. "If they get it on the first three or four shots, they'd be very lucky."

More Caution

Rensink is particularly concerned that BP, in drilling the relief wells, will penetrate into precisely those rock formations in which extreme pressure and temperature conditions facilitated the April blowout in the first place. Gas bubbles and gushing oil from the depths are real possibilities. "Any relief or kill well needs to be drilled with more caution than the first well," Donal Van Nieuwenhuise, a geologist at the University of Houston, told the New Orleans daily Times-Picayune. "You don't want a repeat performance."

***

Indeed, the engineers aren't only facing a formidable technical challenge. Weather will also play a significant role. Forecasters have already predicted that this hurricane season, which began this month, could be one of the most active on record. Drilling would have to be ceased for the duration of each strong storm.

An oil industry geologist adds:

[There are] lots of potential complications [in drilling relief wells]. A big one would be using too high a mud weight/pump pressure and fracturing thwe rock around the [relief well] and losing it. Also instead of the mud building a tall colume inside the well bore and stoping the flow it might escape out of ruptured [casing] or failed [cement] shoes. Then they might not ever be able to build enough back pressure to stop the flow. I suspect many of these possible problems won't reveal themselves until the actual kill process begins.

[Augustus]

This is another example of a collection of half truths.  What, exactly does "damage beneath the sea floor" mean?  Does it refer to some expansion of the well bore at the very bottom caused by the uncontrolled flow?  Coes it imply that the four strings of steel casing from 16,000 ft to the surface is turning into "cardboard" as some nutter posted earlier?  Is it only mentioned for scare value?

The relief well will drill through the exact same formations the  blow out well drilled through.  The geology and the pore pressures are now known, where they were unknown in the original well.  Is that a higher risk?

The Resnik comment regarding the dangerous formations is worthless and obviously intended to mislead the uninformed.  This well did not encounter either extreme pressure or temperature.  It was controlled by the mud weight the entire time it was being drilled and logged.

Robert Reich is pulling information from his ass and does not know what he is talking about. He should stick to explaining union thuggery.  It does generate a media mention for the nutter.  And he did not have to go naked to get it.

The target is small, correct.  The technology used to locate the target is very good.  The probability of an intercept is very high.  Given that they can make several stabs at it, it is very near a sure thing of an intercept, and there are two wells.

The evaluations are presented in the same context that an insurance salesman would use, such as "It is uncertain if you will return from buying a Taco.  Don't you want to protect your family from the risk of a fatal trip to the Taco stand?"

The Ixtoc / Pemex well blew out with only shallow casing in the hole.  This casing situation makes the comparisons nonsense.  But they hired Red Adiar to blow the BOP off the well.  BP is smarter than that.

I want to know where the 13,000 ft of pipe jacked out of the well actually went.  Geo Wash has told us that he and Matt Simmons know it landed seven miles from the currently leaking BOP.  A shot of that casing string stretched out for a few thousand feet would be enough to convince me that they know what they are writing about.

[mtomato2]

Ad Hominem Attack:  Augustus, you are officially an asshole.

Just curious...  what exactly are YOUR qualifications to prattle one so ex-PERT-ly on this incredibly complex subject?

Wait!  You must have seen "Armageddon."  There ya go.

[merehuman]

 Augustus, PMsing? Your tone is hostile and arrogant. Work for BP lately?

[Augustus]

merehuman,

Your ignorance is annoying.  Have you ever been employed?

[merehuman]

Augustus, .............fill in whatever makes you happy

[Augustus]

Fill in with

Make Barney a happy Dumpocrap tonight.

[mtomato2]

I will...  Jump on here at the end.  Augustus:  seriously...  what's the matter today?  I truly don't see the point in your missives.  You are being nothing but argumentative.  (No, I'm not... Yes, you are...)  You are bringing absolutely nothing to the table of debate here.

You're just objecting.  And using the company line to do it.

Distrust, in these times, is quite a healthy thing.  The sources you are briefly quoting are proven liars.  Both BP AND BO.  I mean, seriously.  You are beginning to sound suspiciously like a troll.  What dog do you have in this fight?