Symptoms of Chemical Poisoning  *

During the days of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cleanup, some of the Inipol EAP 22 chemicals were transported on boats; This chemical seemed to leak or spill in the moving it around.  It is an Exxon-owned product that was field tested and lab tested simultaneously, August, 1989 starting the month prior as experimental.  Well, it was all experimental!

 

It was applied by heating the honey-consistency product... but not by diluting it, as far as 'bioremediation' workers go.  It was sprayed, however, from the Pontoon Boats.  Longshoremen running across spills mixed with debris they were unloading from boats were found to have blood in their urine with even this brief exposure, per the report of one such supervisor, who himself was a victim.  

One boat captain questioned whether the chemical was getting into the ships' water supply, as it was a large enough boat to desalinate the water... what about getting this spilled Inipol EAP 22 out of the water, he asked...'Does the system take that out too, not just the salt? "Don't worry!" was the reply, "It's safe"  

Now Captain Richard has concern about living out his life.  He says he is well-known among boats men.  He is asking that those who also worked on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill clean-up no matter what job, contact the Project working on behalf of EVOS workers & give them their information.  He has asked that an ad, using his name, be placed in "The Times Picayane"

The workers * need to be found,  

as neither they nor the doctors seem to know what's the matter with them.  

They collapse from lack of blood, and it is ruled a heart attack.

 

 It is also important to prevent widespread use of Corexit which is also an Exxon product with 3 times the 2-butoxyethanol as Inipol EAP 22 had.  It is still used on the Alyeska terminal, more likely because the ingredients are 'claimed to be proprietary'  which is doubtful.  It most likely is the version that came in originally which had just a little ethylene oxide-a de minimus carcinogen.  BP is said to have banned 409 cleaner from use as being too toxic for their people.  When they look at Corexit, whatever version, they will likely ban it, too.

There's not too much that can be done (except for prayer) for those who lost their health in the jobs they had during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cleanup, but 

we can prevent future harm to workers, by not using products so strong in poison 

(2-butoxyethanol is classified as such - UN Hazard Code).  

Workers would never be given the Personal Protective Equipment level IV that they need. *

 

Besides that, the chemical does no good;  hangs around for decades as poison damaging the marine life.  If  you look at what happened to the herring of 1993, you will see that the herring were bleeding through their scales, they couldn't swim straight, didn't have bladders... all signs of damage from the chemical.  At 4 degrees centigrade nothing even biodegrades... so the grown fish most likely swam through the chemicals.  Exxon only admits to applying 25 tons; another source says 230 tons of Inipol EAP 22 was applied to Alaska beaches.  Everything was 'soupy' with poison. And then there were the other chemicals.

 

Said Alaska Commissioner of Environmental Conservation Dennis Kelso, 1989,

 "Any chemical treatment . . . carries risks. 

Just as we would not continue hosing down a beach until everything was clean, but dead, 

neither would we trade clean rocks for poisoned water." *

 

Workers that didn't work with the chemical at all,

were still running into it. 

 

 

They would have NO IDEA

that the chemicals of the Exxon Valdez oil spill

affected them.