BP disaster one year later - Features. "Coughing, respiratory irritation, and eye irritation were the most common," Rolfes said. "[Respondents] described that the symptoms came on suddenly and they left suddenly and that would be consistent with getting some sort of wave of chemical exposure, even when we took things like allergies into account.
" But Kennedy said that local physicians are hesitant to link their patients' symptoms to the oil. "They don't have the expertise to make a diagnosis in toxicology, they don't know how to treat that diagnosis, and if they do attempt to treat it, they risk losing their medical licenses," she said. And in a predominately rural region where a majority of patients are self-employed and uninsured, the health care facilities are too far away and access to toxicology experts is near impossible," Kennedy added. "Even where that expertise is available, few can afford the expensive tests and medicines needed to treat toxic poisoning," she continued. BP to blaim. Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists - Features. New Orleans, LA - "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera.
"And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either. " Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010. Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants. Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.
Eyeless shrimp Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp. "We've fished here all our lives and have never seen anything like this," he added. Exclusive: Submarine Dive Finds Oil, Dead Sea Life at Bottom of Gulf of Mexico Near BP Spill Site. <br/><a href=" US News</a> | <a href=" Business News</a> Copy A mile below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, there is little sign of life. "It looks like everything's dead," University of Georgia professor Samantha Joye said. In an exclusive trip aboard the U.S. Navy's deep-ocean research submersible Alvin, ABC News was given the chance to observe the impact of this summer's massive oil spill that most will never see. The ocean floor appears to be littered with twigs, but Joye points out that they are actually dead worms and that Alvin is sitting on top of what is considered an 80-square mile kill zone.
Having taken nearly two dozen dives in the Gulf inside the tiny sub that helped discover the Titanic, Joye is leading a team of scientists who are investigating how much oily material is left on the sea floor. Aboard the Alvin Thursday, Joye said she saw "about three to four inches of material. " Oil Spill Affected Gulf Fish's Cell Function, Study Finds. Andrew WhiteheadTests on the killifish after the gulf spill showed cellular changes like poorly regulated estrogen. A minnowlike fish that is a major source of food in wetland marshes along the Gulf of Mexico is showing early signs of biological damage from the BP oil spill, a peer-reviewed study published on Monday found. Exposure to toxic chemicals from the BP disaster, which spewed 4.9 million barrels off the coast of Louisiana in 2010, has altered the gulf killifish’s cellular functions in ways that have been predictive of a lack of reproduction in other fish, according to the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Andrew Whitehead, a biologist at Louisiana State University and the lead author of the report, said the report was the first he knew of about biological effects on wildlife since the spill and that it was cause for concern. Doug Inkley, a senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, called the findings alarming. Yet Dr. BP's Influence Peddling In Congress Bears Fruit Two Years After Gulf Spill. As millions of barrels of oil began pouring into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, Democratic lawmakers began asking the question: what was the proper amount of money that the company responsible for the spill should have to pay?
This wasn't some sort of philosophical exercise. Oil companies pay money into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to help cover the costs of major disasters. But under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a company responsible for a spill is liable for only $75 million in economic damages, provided it didn't exhibit "gross negligence. " The federal government picks up the next $1 billion. Since it quickly became evident that the cost of damages to the Gulf would far exceed those figures, a group of senators, led by Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), tried to change the law. The bill was dubbed the "Big Oil Bailout Prevention Unlimited Liability Act. " It never even made it to an up-or-down vote. Opponents made the same argument each time. None of it was illegal. Also on HuffPost: 2 Years After the BP Oil Spill, Is the Gulf Ecosystem Collapsing?
The BP oil spill started on April 20, 2010. We’ve previously warned that the BP oil spill could severely damage the Gulf ecosystem. Since then, there are numerous signs that the worst-case scenario may be playing out: If you still don’t have a sense of the devastation to the Gulf, American reporter Dahr Jamail lays it out pretty clearly: “The fishermen have never seen anything like this,” Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. Stuart Smith – a successful trial lawyer who won a billion dollar verdict against Exxon Mobil – noted recently: This is exactly like Fukushima and the financial mess, because government’s approach to crises is consistent, no matter what area we are talking about: let the giant companies which fund political campaigns do whatever they want … and then help them cover up the extent of the crisis once it inevitably hits.