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Special Guest Mothership #51 - Human Health Issues and the BP Catastrophe

by Gulf Watchers

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday, Jul. 15, 2010 Thursday, Jul. 15, 2010 at 3:02:20am PDT

Please rec the new Mothership #52 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #212 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - David PA

Rules of the Road

We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

Please constrain commentary in this diary to the topic at hand - human health issues and the BP Oil Catastrophe.

I need to say this before anyone reads further. Not that much is known (medically) about the health consequences of exposure to oil, it’s by-products and the dispersants. The data gathered is reliable, as it stands but insufficient. There are a number of possible explanations why we don’t know more, but I don’t want to speculate. Basically you cannot do double blind studied to determine if oily compound x causes this or that disease. Those studies would never be approved. So you have to take the data as presented and the conditions under which people become ill and try to interpret the facts in a plausible and scientific way.

Human Health Issues Related to BP Oil Catastrophe

Intro:

There are a lot of health issues related to oil clean up but I’m going to concentrate on those relating to contact with the oil and the dispersants.

People who clean up spills as well as residents in affected communities come into contact with many types of crude oil, including fresh oil or weathered oil, both of which contain volatile carcinogenic (cancer causing) substances like benzene, toluene and naphthalene, just to name a few. The oil spewing into the gulf is said to be thicker oil than the light, sweet, Louisiana crude. This means it will be harder to remove from the marshes.

Most crude is a mix of hydrocarbons, which is a mix of light, medium and heavy chemicals. The hydrocarbons are mostly alkanes, cycloalkanes and other aromatics. The other organic compounds contain nitrogen, oxygen, nickel, copper and vanadium. Usually the light parts, like the benzenes and toluene evaporate into the air in the first days after the “spill”. It is mostly the medium and heavy parts that the clean up crews deal with.... most of which is weathered. This weathering occurs quickly at first and slows over time. The medium hydrocarbon chains dissolve or are evaporated away by sun, waves and winds. But the heavier oily wastes that end up inside storage containers will degrade with time and especially in high temperature areas will emit foul odors and toxic gases and vapors.

Inhalable vapors occur when the lighter substances in the oil leave the water’s surface. Inhaling oil droplets that are aerosolized in cleanup operations can be an irritant to the mucosal surfaces involved in breathing: nose, mouth, throat, bronchi and lungs, but also can be an eye irritant. Even if air samples indicate no or low levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), there may be enough in the ambient air to affect someone’s health. People with any chronic lung disease (COPD, Asthma, Chronic bronchitis, etc.) may experience worsening of their symptoms when exposed to VOCs. And remember, the ‘spill’ is ongoing so it is not like this is over with. The flood of oil continues and the evaporative vapors continue also.

Health Factors associated with crude oils include:

Pulmonary: Inhalation of toxic volatile compounds like benzene, pulmonary edema from same, worsening of chronic symptoms.

Skin: Dermatitis (may be severe) from prolonged or repeated contact with the oil, skin cancer.

Neurological problems: including peripheral neuropathy.
Those are the most common. But truthfully, exposure to crude oil can harm any one of the numerous body systems.

Exposure:

Most folks exposed to crude are exposed by inhaling the evaporating vapors or via skin contact. Clean up workers also frequently end up ingesting varying quantities of oil: it spills on their clothes, they eat during a break, there’s a rent in the gloves, etc. It’s not that unusual.

Short-term exposure to VOCs is usually associated with: sore throat, headache, nausea, lightheadedness and dizziness and these symptoms often lessen when the exposure is over. Not all the chemicals have an odor and the so-called weathered oil is often releasing VOCs as it weathers. Even weathered oil provides risk when touched. All clean up workers must have appropriate protective clothing, including respirator masks. In any case, those with chronic lung disease, asthma, chronic bronchitis or chronic skin ailments should not be doing this work, because they are at increased risk. (Fishgrease on blog radio last week was adamant that when he and his working buddies detected an ‘odor’ they left the area.)

Clean up Operations

Exposure during clean up on the Water:

Fishermen in the gulf who’ve been helping with the oil clean up have been complaining of sore throats, dizziness, headaches and such. Those symptoms are very common in people exposed to TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons). And because the oil spew has continued, coastal residents have complained of the same symptoms. This is NOT surprising.

About TPH

Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) describes a large family of many hundreds of chemical compounds that come from crude oil, so really TPH is a gemisch (Yiddish for mixture) of chemicals. Crude oil varies in how much each of carbon & hydrogen it contains. Most TPH products will burn. Some are light in color or even clear and easily evaporate, others are thick and dark or even semi-solid that doesn’t & won’t evaporate. When TPH is released into the sea the lighter fractions will float, while the heavier fractions will sink, polluting the sea bottom and riddling any organisms, which ingest it with pollutants.

TPHs enter the bloodstream very quickly no matter how they gain entrance. Some compounds are broken down quickly to less toxic metabolites; others to more toxic products and still others are not easily metabolized. Our bodies get rid of these metabolized through exhaling or peeing them out.

Crude oil contains many chemicals that can irritate the skin and mucous membranes on contact. Irritant effects can range from slight reddening to burning, swelling (edema), pain, and permanent skin damage. Commonly reported effects of acute exposure to crude oil through inhalation or ingestion include difficulty breathing, headaches, dizziness, nausea, confusion, and other central nervous system effects. These are more likely to be noticed than potentially more serious effects that don't have obvious signs and symptoms: lung, liver and kidney damage, infertility, immune system suppression, disruption of hormone levels, blood disorders, mutations, and cancer.

Link: Chemical Hazards Report (PDF)

Clean up Operations: Chronic Exposure

Chronic Exposure has the potential to permanently damage essential body organs and functions. It is important to remember that the skin is the largest organ (by weight) in the body, so chronic skin exposure (even if there are no accompanying rashes) can increase the risk of internal organ damage. Substances absorbed via the skin get a quick pass into the bloodstream.

Everyone is at risk if exposed to toxic chemicals but certain populations are at especially high risk if they are exposed to even low levels of toxic chemicals over a long period. This includes: those with chronic pulmonary ailments, people with chronic skin conditions, pregnant women, infants and small children, people who have other hazardous chemical exposures at work, and people taking medications that might interfere with the bodies ability to detoxify substances.

Prolonged exposure to some TPH fractions (Benzene, Xylene, Toluene) even at low concentrations can result in severe neurological damage. Inhaling toluene fumes causes immediate headache, nausea, fatigue and drowsiness, which disappear when exposure is stopped. But prolonged low - level exposure can result in permanent neurological damage. Certain TPH fraction exposures can result in severe peripheral neuropathy, paresis or paralysis.

Benzene is widely known to be very harmful. It not only causes leukemia, but also chromosomal derangements in certain white blood cells (lymphocytes) and bone marrow cells, aplastic anemia (often a leukemia precursor) and general immune damage. Because of the resulting anemia (and therefore diminished oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood) it can result in increased heart stress. There are also effects on the CNS (central nervous system) and PNS (peripheral nervous system) and the hepatic system after prolonged exposure.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (PDF)

Dispersants
Dispersants break up oil. This ability makes it easy for that same oil to penetrate the skin and move into and through cell walls. The fact that they can do this means they can interfere with the protective coating and linings of various body parts/tissues (throat, eyes, mouth, nose, lungs) to name just a few. England permits the use of dispersants and as we know, even they refuse to allow the use of Corexit. Most of the other EU countries forbid the use of dispersants. (Norway allows dispersants to be used in certain circumstances). (PDF)

Corexit 9500 and 9527A
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse....

Both of the above compounds have been used in the Gulf. Dispersants are designed to form micelles.

Micelles are small bubble-like structures that envelop the oil droplets. Oil-filled micelles don’t have the characteristic sheen that oil does so they may be difficult to identify on the water’s surface. In addition they may not have any odor.

Inhaling dispersant-oil combinations can coat all the passages leading to the lungs as well as coating the lung’s surface. When this happens a lipoid (fatty) pneumonia, chemical pneumonitis or asthma may occur. Getting base-line pulmonary function tests should be SOP for people cleaning up oil spills. The detergents and surfactants in the dispersants have been shown to damage the lungs of birds and mammals as well as covering fish gills thus interfering with breathing.

The dispersants in Corexit 9500 and 9527A contain some or all of the following: (1) 2-butoxyethanol (2-BE), (2) propylene glycol, (3) organic sulfonic acid salts including: (3A) DSS (sodium dioctyl sulfonosuccinate, (3B) Span-80 (sorbitan monooleate) and (3C) Tween-80 (ethoxylated sorbitan monooleate). I will summarize what I’ve been able to find out. Numbers 3A & B are nonionic and the EPA lists derivatives, which may have different chemical formulations.

(1) 2-BE may cause respiratory, hematologic and reproductive damage. Information is based on animal studies. People with known respiratory issues should not go near the stuff.

(2)Propylene glycol is a mild irritant. Skin and lung exposure should be avoided in allergic or sensitive individuals. In animal studies prolonged exposure led to decrease in red and white cells, cell fragility, abnormal blood cell structure, decreased hemoglobin content (which will cause anemia) and cell rupture. Some people are very sensitive to this and for those clean up work is a hazard.

The issue with this dispersant is that it allows chemicals in the oil-dispersant micelle ready access inside the body.

(3)Organic Sulfonic Acid Salts, esp. DSS. DSS is an irritant to throat, eyes and with prolonged exposure can disrupt the mucosal surfaces (basically linings) of various organs (especially lungs).

Most exposure to dispersants would be low level by the time the oil-dispersant micelle reaches the shore.

A word about H2S, Hydrogen sulfide, which has been reported in high levels at the shoreline in LA:

Gulf Spill Chemical Hazards Report

Hydrogen sulfide has an odor but that odor is easily acclimated to. It is also heavier than oxygen so will hang at low levels. It is highly irritating to the eyes, throat and other mucosal surfaces and can be dangerous to (again) those with chronic lung issues. Exposure to high concentrations can result in loss of consciousness. Chronic exposure can lead to permanent neurological damage.

In general it is the chronic low-grade exposures that present the greatest long-term risks. This is not to minimize the acute exposures. In fact I believe that everyone doing any kind of clean up should be wearing protective clothing and a half-face respirator mask. And those with chronic lung or skin conditions, pregnant women, small children should be kept away.

This is not an exciting ‘diary’ but it contains information that is important and necessary. I’ll be around to answer questions. I am not a chemist and the chemistry information I got is from documents on line, many of which I linked to. I do have knowledge about medical issues and would be glad to answer any questions about those. I am comfortable saying, “I don’t know” when I don’t.

=======================

Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill Reference Material - from Whitis is the best source for everything.. The quantitative data diary has also been moved there.

Kossak Sillia gives a concise explanation of the mothership and liveblog:

This diary, that is, the mothership, forms the hub from which you can reach the other diaries. Or, think of it as a table of contents in the front page of a book. You use this diary to find a link to the latest discussions. You can also find links here to past discussions (previous diaries) if you wanted to read them.

The actual liveblog diaries (in this case playfully referred to as a 'submersible' or ROV) is where the discussion is--once one of these gets so long that its size is cumbersome, they start a new one. So if you wanted to join in to the most current discussion, you'd click the most recent link. But they leave the links there so that people can still go back and read the older ones if they wish.

The reason for this setup is that it prevents the recommended list from being filled up with many diaries on the same topic. Instead just the mothership will appear on the rec list where everybody can find it, which they can use to navigate to the latest discussion. (That's why we are asked to "rec" the mothership but not the other diaries, just reduces confusion.)
I hope this is sort of what you were wanting to know...

Video Feeds
44287/44668 - OceanInterventionROV1
44838/45135 - OceanInterventionROV2
46566/54013 - Viking_Poseidon_ROV1
55030/56646 - Viking_Poseidon_ROV2
31499/31500 - Boa_Deep_C_ROV_1
22458/23729 - Boa_Deep_C_ROV_2
45685/49182 - Skandi_ROV1 (herc14)
45683/45684 - Skandi_ROV2 (herc6)
47175/21144 - Enterprise_ROV_1
21145/21327 - Enterprise_ROV_2
37235/37270 - Q4000_ROV1
35523/35624 - Q4000_ROV2
41434/41436 - Oly_ROV1 (Olympic Challenger's ROV1)
40788/40789 - Oly_ROV2 (Olympic Challenger's ROV2)
24951/24975 - Inspire_ROV1 (Discovery Inspiration's ROV1)
30948/35246 - Hos_ROV1 (HOS Adventure ROV1)
35461/36301 - Hos_ROV2 (HOS Adventure ROV2)

The best multi-view feed
BP Video Feed
CNN multi camera view
PBS This PBS feed is security compliant.
BP videos - Links to all available live feeds from BP
WKRG - Mobile/Pensacola (contains link for an iPhone app at the bottom)
ABC News
A multi-view with feeds from BP, C-SPAN-2, WKRG, and PBS
Vote For America's awesome clickable multi-view

Links, courtesy of several Kossacks

Summarized tally of affected wildlife
Visualize the spill
Nola.com
h/t dov12348's recommended links
The Oil Drum
Oil & Gas Journal
Offshore Magazine
Petroleum News
Your Oil and Gas News
World Oil
Administration response to spill.
Donate to SkyTruth here. SkyTruth helps environmental NGOs use remote sensing (pictures taken from space) and digital mapping to improve their scientific credibility, conservation decisionmaking, communications and public outreach.
Images of the Oilpacalypse, from Tomtech.
Visit the Oil Spill Crisis Map to see where oil, mousse, tar balls, and eau de crude have been reported on the Gulf coast.
The BP Deepwater Horizon Unified Command official website. Wherein you can read latest post warning of employment scams associated with the event and much more from the folks handling this.
Timeline of response here.
Timeline of the Event from April 20th being maintained by blogroots.
Bit Tooth Energy blog (technical discussions) by the famed Heading Out, well known key poster on The Oil Drum blog site.
Department of Interior BP Deepwater Horizon Response site provides updates, reports, data, links to pictures, etc.
Rigzone for specific disaster news and news about the offshore industry, in general.

Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.

Information on our community can be found in Phil S 33's diary here. If you'd like, feel free to join in by sharing a little about yourself there.