BP knows that clean up can damage health, and yet they insist that it’s probably “food poisoning.”
“I’m sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill,” Hayward said. “You know, food poisoning is clearly a big issue when you have a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps, temporary accommodation. It’s something we have to be very, very mindful of. It’s one of the big issues of keeping the army operating. You know, armies march on their stomachs.”
Some folks are starting to , but complainers have a way of getting unhired. If your regular job has been destroyed by the spill, and you’re offered money to help with the clean up, who will say no? Complain and you’re broke. Government won’t help, insurance companies won’t help, BP won’t help. If you want to pay rent or mortgage this summer you got to suck those fumes, breathe in that dispersant and commit to a lifetime of illness.
She says the men had all the same symptoms at the same time — vomiting, dizziness, headaches, shortness of breath. Could it be a coincidence?
“I don’t believe in coincidence. It would be one thing if one of them got sick. It would maybe be OK if two got sick,” she says. “When everyone’s getting sick all at the same time, that’s not coincidence”
When asked at a news conference Sunday about people getting sick while out on the Gulf, BP CEO Tony Hayward had his own theory.
“Food poisoning is clearly a big issue,” he said. “It’s something we’ve got to be very mindful of.”
Arnesen says there’s no way her husband and the men on the other boats had fallen victim to food poisoning, noting the men were on eight boats and didn’t eat the same food.
who helped with the Exxon Valdez clean up reported respiratory problems. Exxon stonewalled them and never paid for their health care. BP is taking a page out of that playbook.
“Gary Stubblefield, spent four months lifting workers in a crane for 18 hours a day as they sprayed the oil-slicked beaches with hot water, which created an oily mist. Even though he had to wipe clean his windshield twice a day, Stubblefield said it never occurred to him that the mixture might be harming his lungs.
“Within weeks, he and others, who wore little to no protective gear, were coughing and experiencing other symptoms that were eventually nicknamed Valdez crud. Now 60, Stubblefield cannot get through a short conversation without coughing and gasping for breath like a drowning man. He sometimes needs the help of a breathing machine and inhalers, and has to be careful not to choke when he drinks and eats.”
