The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill...
So, what can anyone do about it all anyway?
Prevention, of course... Oil Spill Act of 1990 was a help - We have Serves - We have RCAC
Only thing... it was an injustice to ban the ship...
So you can lobby Congress to overturn the ban... It wasn't the ship's fault
But if there is another spill, remember, nature with the waves and the sunlight does more good
than putting kitchen oil with poison (Inipol EAP 22 with 2-butoxyethanol)
or kerosene with triple the poison & some cancer causing component(s)
(Corexit with 38% 2-butoxyethanol and trace ethylene oxide).
... into the water and on the beaches. Some researchers claim that it took 4 years for beaches to recover with the help of humans... and only 18 months when left alone. Also, you won't have deaths of workers exposed to the oil and chemicals... just a few years later.
The Corexit & Inipol EAP 22 currently stored at the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal should be disposed of as a hazardous waste.
"Dispersants have not been the first line of defense for oil spill cleanup in the U.S.
because dispersants present toxicity threats and health threats to those applying the products." uspoly.com/dispersit
Remember also, that workers would
never be supplied daily with the appropriate, non contaminated personal
protective gear they need. Remember what Dr. John Middaugh of the State of
Alaska Epidemiology Dept stated, "The Human Toll is not worth
it!" Ask him to do
a health study. This Dept has the authority to follow up health-wise on
these workers.
The workers need to be found and you can help! Don't let it surprise you that someone in your circle of friends and acquaintances may have worked on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cleanup. Pick out your favorite web page from the 'fun' page and e-mail it to your friends. They will e-mail their friends... & you can help find the workers! www.valdezlink.com/fun.htm
The workers need to be found ... It is urgent that they be found! They don't know what health concerns they are dealing with, and because it is from oil or chemical poisoning, doctors see the results, but not the chemical cause. If prior workers are not making enough blood, and getting severe headaches... blood thinner may hurt, not help. There may already have been many deaths attributed to heart attack, which were instead collapse from lack of blood; or leukemia diagnosed instead of death by aplastic anemia (caused from the oil exposures). Blood cells should show evidence of damage right away & the workers will feel the tiredness hit in 4 months with hemolytic anemia. Even if the blood count is in the normal range, ask an experienced lab to look at the red blood cells under a microscope.
The workers need to be found so their families will also understand their struggle. The last thing someone who is ill needs ... is to be criticized for it. Often family and friends say, "Why are you sleeping all the time?" "What's your problem?" "Why are you so lazy?" "Why aren't you nicer?" Maybe they need to realize that their loved one is ill & rejection by their family hurts them all over again.
The workers need to be found... so they AND their children can learn a life-style of avoiding chemicals as much as possible... avoid the aspartame in diet pop; avoid any and all drinking (it adds to the allowable chemical 'load' and it also speeds the damage to the liver) etc, etc
Lobby to have laws disclosing to the public the harmful ingredients in their every day household cleaning products. If it cleans really well, like Lysol tub 'n tile or 409 Cleaner, or Spray 'n Wash... you can just about count on it having some of the same poisons. Whatever you do, don't let the little ones play squirt gun with the empty containers... the MSDS, if you can get one says to crush empty containers... to be sure they will not be re-used.
There needs to be a medical follow up on these guys... not paid by Medicaid, but by Exxon. When dad is no longer here, who will take care of his children and help them with school? Is there such a thing as 'wrongful death?' There should be.
There is more that needs to be done here. Even the children need to be followed up on for the effect of their parent's strong exposure to chemicals. Are we to learn nothing from this? What a loss to medical science, not to follow up on the workers, on their children! The World Health Organization knows more than the US does, though.
Are we to repeat it upon future generations ad infinitum? Lobby to ban dispersants strong in 2-butoxyethanol. Ban these Exxon products: Corexit and Inipol EAP 22 from EPA's 'approved use' list. No young man should suffer from chemical poisoning just because he took a job one day to provide for his family or to go to college ..... and trusted his employer.
And surely you don't want to dump more oil and soap and poison in the ocean? It doesn't get rid of any oil, just puts it in a different form. The declining fishing industry? We've probably only seen the 'tip of the iceberg' as to what's really happened to the fishing industry. The herring link is not at all what it should be since the harm to them was noticed in 1993... etc. Maybe we should be 'farming' herring? Maybe we should have support for the fishermen?
Medical doctors should educate themselves as much as possible on chemical poisoning ... or at least have a reputable expert on the effects of too many chemicals ... such as an environmental toxicologist to refer patients to. Remember, too, that the current generation may have health effects from parents who worked in the auto industry, dry cleaning and plastics; plumbers, too? The cleaning business itself is a dangerous business... full of products strong in 2-butoxyethanol. Has someone come with a hacking cough that won't go away? ... a debilitating headache? Medical doctors can know the symptoms of chemical poisoning; they can order the blood workup from the specialty lab; they can check for brain tumor and leukemia .... kidney and liver function .... while there is still time to save a life.
Where is the medical research for cures? for hemolytic anemia? for aplastic anemia?
Did you know that the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome and those for overexposure to 2-butoxyethanol are the same? They are. Was it in their cleaning compounds or 'running' into the beach cleanup who knows who was undertaking in 1991 ... that the military could have been in contact with 2-butoxyethanol? Many nations rushed to help until the first $55 million was spent. But there isn't much record of what they did.
Don't forget to Pray! There are a lot of people who need prayer here!
to abbreviated web contents - Exxon Valdez Oil Spill -
workers 
3-30-03 Public domain photos courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.