Greenpeace senior researcher Mark Floegel has a great op-ed about lasting effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill over at theTimes-Picayune. The Louisiana local paper also has some excellent coverage of the fourth anniversary of the disaster, and we recommend you check it out here.
Here’s a little bit of Mark’s op-ed:
Four years after theBP oil drilling disasterin the Gulf of Mexico, it’s clear that wildlife, communities and the environment along the Gulf Coast continue to suffer lasting damage.
Research from the National Institutes of Healthshows that cleanup workers, who were exposed to elevated levels of the toxic chemicals in crude oil and dispersants, are suffering from increased rates of a range of ailments, from respiratory problems to depression.
Impacts have been documented in species throughout the Gulf of Mexico, from sperm whales and dolphins to oysters and corals. One recent study showed that embryonic and larval fish of various species, including endangered bluefin tuna and amberjack, suffer defects in the development of their cardiopulmonary systems when exposed to crude oil from BP’s Macondo well.
