Air Tests from the Louisiana Coast Reveal Human Health Threats from the Oil Disaster
May 17th, 2010Via: Institute for Southern Studies:
The media coverage of the BP oil disaster to date has focused largely on the threats to wildlife, but the latest evaluation of air monitoring data shows a serious threat to human health from airborne chemicals emitted by the ongoing deepwater gusher.
Today the Louisiana Environmental Action Network released its analysis of air monitoring test results by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s air testing data comes from Venice, a coastal community 75 miles south of New Orleans in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish.
The findings show that levels of airborne chemicals have far exceeded state standards and what’s considered safe for human exposure.
For instance, hydrogen sulfide has been detected at concentrations more than 100 times greater than the level known to cause physical reactions in people. Among the health effects of hydrogen sulfide exposure are eye and respiratory irritation as well as nausea, dizziness, confusion and headache.
The concentration threshold for people to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion. But as recently as last Thursday, the EPA measured levels at 1,000 ppb. The highest levels of airborne hydrogen sulfide measured so far were on May 3, at 1,192 ppb.
Testing data also shows levels of volatile organic chemicals that far exceed Louisiana’s own ambient air standards. VOCs cause acute physical health symptoms including eye, skin and respiratory irritation as well as headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea and confusion.
Louisiana’s ambient air standard for the VOC benzene, for example, is 3.76 ppb, while its standard for methylene chloride is 61.25 ppb. Long-term exposure to airborne benzene has been linked to cancer, while the EPA considers methylene chloride a probable carcinogen.
Air testing results show VOC concentrations far above these state standards. On May 6, for example, the EPA measured VOCs at levels of 483 ppb. The highest levels detected to date were on April 30, at 3,084 ppb, following by May 2, at 3,416 ppb.
Research Credit: dagobaz
Thanks Dagobaz for the info.
Dr. Mercola recently (in the last month) had an article about when you are on a airplane and smell the fuel smell in the cabin. In a nutshell, the article described how if smell the fumes. you are toast, and better wash all your clothes the minute you get off the plane.
I don’t know about the rest of you all, but these days I am on the one hand giving thanks that I don’t live in a place that is exposed to the oil spill. I know that sounds really selfish and gruesome. But then again, my karma has been one where I have been exposed to the elderly syndrome for over ten years now: who is worthy of “medical care,” which I am finally realizing was never intended to be “healing care” and I am very tired.
But I am also peed off behond comprehension, even to the depths of my soul over this oil spill. I cannot begin to fathom the death and destruction this “spill” will cause. The brundt of which will fall on Lousiana residents. I am so freaking tired of these people being piled on time and time again by these “forces of the universe.”
Since my Mother’s passing in January 2010, I have been reading the “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying,” by Sogyal Rinpoche. It’s been a long slog read for me, but it provides some soul nourishment every time I read a chapter of it (I take that back -wanted to skip a few).
Even before I started reading this book, somewhere in my grieving process, I picked up a slice of spiritual intellegence that gives me comfort: “not a one of us makes it out of this world alive.”
You might expect a person grieving who quotes that saying to be one who sloughs off the world and all its suffering. But my experience is exactly the opposite. I feel too much compassion.
And anger that you cannot believe. How to channel that anger is the question for me.
While whimpy at best, I decided (0ver the first weekend after the oil spill that I was going to not use lawn equipment that used gasoline or oil until the Gulf Oil spill wss resolved. That might sound stupid to u, but in the US there is a cult that has evolved over the fine trimmed green lawn. Enough for me. Hand clippers, and a battery powered lawn mower.
It’s times like these where my soul is in revolt: does my soul really have something to learn by living through times like this? Aren’t I more advanced already in my soul journey to be beyond experiencing this soul searing experience?
The answer is no. Guess I haven’t been there and done this enough times to be beyond this. And so here we are friends, in this murky oil soup together.
Can anyone out there give me a positive thought form to pray to so to rise above and provide energy to a healing? I need it now. So does the Gulf of Mexico, and Louisiana. Sorry friends. It’s not politically correct to go around weeping when your Mother dies, nor is it something to do (but I think people should be doing) when the planet you live on has suffered a grievous wound
I can’t tell anyone else what to do, but I am going to keep on keeping on with my tears, weeping, and gnashing of teeth for both of these experiences. And then maybe a positive form of action will come for me after I’ve done all that. I hope the best for you too.
@ Eileen.
Your words captured my attention and I thought about what you wrote for a long while. I just wanted to tell you that instead of passing by and, seemingly, not responding.
@Thank you Dennis, for your acknowledgement, and sorry Kevin for taking up so much space in your bandwith with my comment. I was shocked at what poured out of me yesterday.
I think it is a very difficult time for those human souls who are cognizant of karma, dharma, and what not to be alive these days. We are like pieces of meat on a griddle, burning hot.
I dunno, even if this planet goes up in flames, and we humans are like the flying ants I’ve chosen to squash rather than put outside (sorry they are soo gross)I think that the soul within will live on. Everything we have us goes away when we die. Its going to be alright.
We are all here for a reason and inhabit this human shell as witnesses: to the Pope, George Bush; Hurricane Katrina; the tsunami, the Gulf oil spill etc. We can’t do anything about any of them.
This summer will be the tipping point for humanity.
Rather than lose your mind, just remember, you are here for a reason, and observe wisely. Your testimony will be needed at the Great Convocation of Souls who pass by the pearly gates. (I just made that shit up but I really meant to say that.) I better go away for awhile. See you. God/dess bless you all.
Eileen, there’s no reason to apologize for feeling the gravity of this disaster; this latest atrocity.
What I learned, several years ago, was that there was nothing to be gained by allowing my sorrow, and the sense of constant horror, to destroy me. Keeping this stuff too close for too long is a recipe for destruction. Guaranteed.
(Becky is the reason that I didn’t completely lose the plot, in case you’re wondering.)
I run Cryptogon, but I don’t internalize Cryptogon anymore. I maintain my awareness, but I also cultivate emotional detachment from this… predicament in which humanity finds itself.
So, Cryptogon can be interpreted in a few different ways. Initially, stupidly, I hoped that the ship of fools could be turned around. (I haven’t, however, had those thoughts or aspirations in at least seven years. Individuals and small groups may make substantial changes in their own lives, but that’s the extent of it—just my opinion. National, regional, global changes? Let’s stop shitting ourselves.)
For many people, Cryptogon is like a rubber hose that beats them numb. That’s definitely not my goal. At this late stage of the game, I simply want to help people step out of the way of whatever clear and present danger might be showing up on their doorstep here and now, or maybe a few weeks or years from now.
There’s no point, though, in taking it in too deeply. The good news is that time away from these themes can feel like being reborn. I hear from people who had read Cryptogon for years, and report to me how their quality of life improved dramatically since shutting out this type of information.
These aren’t cases of ignorance is bliss. This is strong medicine. Too much, not properly assimilated, is poison. If it’s not useful to you in some way, if it’s not helping you attain a goal, if it’s depressing you to the point of debilitation, cut it loose. Please, cut it loose, for your own good.
In a sense, this is about survival, but as we’ve written back and forth to each other many times (Eileen and I communicate extensively in private), nobody is getting out of here alive. Better to make the best of it.
Damn I love these times. It’s such a fucking mess it’s just impossible to get bored. I mean it can annoy me to some gigantic extent, but there’s no WAY I can find myself contemplating too long again the “esthetic disarray” I thought I felt in the interval of time between that one failed adolescent love affair and when I started playing the drums.
Viral approaches, core designing, regular humbling – and I can’t get enough of sketching sketches after sketches. I’m long past the point of turning back – was that seven years ago ? HA. My daily infliction of cryptogon mundane madness and other abuses probably no longer has an effect on my determination. The inspirational value remains.
Kevin – dear one,
This site, among few others, is a place that fulfills my needs for INFORMATION and as you said, as a source for clear and present dangers: past, present, future.
And so, thank you for providing information, as well as a place to write what I feel on the topics you post that resonate with me.
I know when not to read something posted on the site. Yup, I pick and choose ( no offense intended).
I am grateful that you post strong medicine. Wish the news you post on this site were on the front page of every newspaper.
Thank you for your wisdom and kinship.
Thank you, Eileen, for adding your thoughts here and, of course, for your very substantial role in supporting our work.