What BP Doesn’t Want You To Know About The 2012 Gulf Oil Spill
“It’s as safe as Dawn dishwashing liquid.”
That’s what Jamie Griffin says the BP man told her about the smelly, rainbow-streaked gunk coating the floor of the “floating hotel” where Griffin was feeding hundreds of cleanup workers during the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, the workers were tracking the gunk inside on their boots. Griffin, as chief cook and maid, was trying to clean it. But even boiling water didn’t work.
“The BP representative said, ‘Jamie, just mop it like you’d mop any other dirty floor,’” Griffin recalls in her Louisiana drawl.
It was the opening weeks of what everyone, echoing President Barack Obama, was calling “the worst environmental disaster in American history.” At 9:45 p.m. local time on April 20, 2010, a fiery explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had killed 11 workers and injured 17. One mile underwater, the Macondo well had blown apart, unleashing a gusher of oil into the gulf. At risk were fishing areas that supplied one third of the seafood consumed in the U.S., beaches from Texas to Florida that drew billions of dollars’ worth of tourism to local economies, and Obama’s chances of reelection. Republicans were blaming him for mishandling the disaster, his poll numbers were falling, even his 11-year-old daughter was demanding, “Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?”
Griffin did as she was told: “I tried Pine-Sol, bleach, I even tried Dawn on those floors.” As she scrubbed, the mix of cleanser and gunk occasionally splashed onto her arms and face.
Within days, the 32-year-old single mother was coughing up blood and suffering constant headaches. She lost her voice. “My throat felt like I’d swallowed razor blades,” she says.
Then things got much worse.
Like hundreds, possibly thousands, of workers on the cleanup, Griffin soon fell ill with a cluster of excruciating, bizarre, grotesque ailments. By July, unstoppable muscle spasms were twisting her hands into immovable claws. In August, she began losing her short-term memory. After cooking professionally for 10 years, she couldn’t remember the recipe for vegetable soup; one morning, she got in the car to go to work, only to discover she hadn’t put on pants. The right side, but only the right side, of her body “started acting crazy. It felt like the nerves were coming out of my skin. It was so painful. My right leg swelled—my ankle would get as wide as my calf—and my skin got incredibly itchy.”
[Photo: Benjamin Lowy/Getty]
Not entirely certain how reliable “The Daily Beast” is. taking with a grain of salt.
First off, this is from Newsweek. And the writer is a Fellow of the New American Foundation who has written about global warming for outlets including the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Time, NPR, the BBC and The Nation, per his bio. He is the author of six books that have been translated into sixteen languages. Put down the salt. It’s not healthy for you anyways.
Point of order: Salt is very healthy for you.
In fact, all living creatures require it in order to regulate numerous bodily systems. But, as with most everything, you should only consume it in moderation.
![think-progress:
Who’s sitting at the witness table at the GOP hearing right now on birth control for women.
Five men.
Also, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) walked out of the hearing in protest of Chairman Darrell Issa’s refusal to let Democrats call any witnesses. Issa refused to allow Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown student, where Holmes teaches and describes as “the foremost Catholic university in the country,” because Fluke was “not qualified” in Issa’s opinion. Issa is Catholic. Holmes responded, “women impacted by the [policy] are the most qualified to speak.”
Said Maloney,
“What I want to know is, where are the women? I look at this panel, and I don’t see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzhx08yvI61ql6jblo1_500.png)
