Box 233
Valdez, Alaska 99686
July 15, 2010
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460
 
Dear EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson,
 
Although there are many exposures that can harm us, the most frequently used and thus the most harmful is the flu causing chemical:  glycol ether (such as 2-butoxyethanol which is found half of the time when glycol ether is present).  What is blamed on a virus, should be blamed on glycol ether.
 
Not only should it not be sprayed through the air and dumped in the oceans as is now being done with dispersants, but this autoimmune causing, cancer causing, birth defect causing chemical should be banned by Congress and not put in home cleaning products, paint, dry cleaning, printing, or in any other products.  It should not be used at all.  The price we and our children and our pets pay, is not worth it.  These chemicals don't even have to be disclosed, just the 'how to use' warnings.
 
I believe the anemia it causes is the fatigue that doctors are searching for in Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, CFS, FM.  The odd assortment of symptoms are found in all war eras and in the civilian populations now in equal proportions (as the 'gulf war illness vets' found out).  This chemical is an organic solvent, a pesticide, a poison, a neurotoxin and a teratogen.
 
Even the Presidents' doctors do not understand it.  Pres FDR, Pres Eisenhower & others show signs of this chemical's poisoning.  Cancers and autoimmune issues, and Autism and birth defects are now epidemic with no end in sight.
 
I first looked into the harm of 2-butoxyethanol when our son shared in 2001 that he was health damaged after working on the Exxon Valdez oil spill 'bioremediation' experiment.  Inipol was 10% of EGBE.  He said he had a low red blood cell anemia and a deep depression that Prozac didn't help, so after a year he quit taking it.  So I began looking into what this chemical did, and have spent an inordinate amount of time (5 hours a day for the first 5 years 2002 & on to the present).  Although I have no medical or chemical background, I have looked at the research of others & do recognize the harm of 2-butoxyethanol.  And I also notice that I have various exposures.
 
Signs of exposure are also 'belly fat,' obesity, short term memory loss, nice guy turned grouch, suicidal tendencies, abnormal thinking, horrible headaches, in general improper metabolism of calcium, iron, damage to liver, kidneys ... a host of issues.  I notice the fatigue signs in the late Senator Robert Byrd, in Assoc. Justice Ruth Ginsburg, in General David Petraeus.  To help these a different view of health & the harm of glycol ether is essential.
 
Per today's video of the well cap & leaking oil in the Gulf (Admiral Thad Allen's Press Conference), the dispersant is still added.  Worse than the oil itself, is the use of dispersant containing so much glycol ether (2-butoxyethanol at 30-60% of Corexit).  http://www.valdezlink.com/re/gulf/health/captdavereply.htm

Sincerely,

 

Margaret Diann Hursh