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peterg7lyq
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Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 7:16 AM

http://www.arkema-inc.com/literature/pdf/371.pdf

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/oil-spill-cleanup-workers-exposed-significant-health-hazards.html

IS CRUDE OIL HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH OH YES

all the most dangerous chemicals in use come from CRUDE

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/bp-oil-spill-dangerous-chilrens-lungs

Now and in the days ahead, it is critical to protect your children's health and your own from the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people avoid close contact with the oil spill and the fumes that arise from the burning oil, especially if you or your children have asthma or any other respiratory or lung condition..

You don't need to be among the oil spill cleanup crews to suffer health consequences from the Gulf oil spill. The CDC notes that people may be able to smell fumes from the oil spill from the shore, and that what people detect is from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and naphthalene.

Although the CDC states that "the level of vapors in the air will be below the level that can hurt you," people may still experience headache, vomiting, or nausea. Exposure to even low levels of VOCs can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin. People who have asthma may be more susceptible to the effects of inhaled VOCs. The agency also recommends parents contact their pediatrician if their children develop any symptoms associated with contact with oil or oil fumes.


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peterg7lyq
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#1

Re: IS CRUDE OIL HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

06/26/2010 7:38 AM

Multiple Oil Spill cameras

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/bp-live-oil-spill-cam.html
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tcmtech
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#2

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 4:24 PM

How come oil rig workers are exposed to it and all the related drilling chemicals day in and day out, many of us for decades even, yet never seem to have any problems that draw OSHA into action yet the general pubic thinks they may have seen it once and assumes its killing them where they stand?

Reason being I work in the oil fields doing clean up work all day and spend almost every day being exposed to it and all the other stuff at times at high levels and I, along with thousands of others who work with it, don't develop the problems and symptoms that the general pubic seems to manage to get after just one possible exposure?

Are we oil field workers just of that superior of genetic stock or higher tolerance level?

By the way OSHA now makes a stink over possible blood born and body fluid disease communication in the oil fields. We cant even sweat near each other without filling OSHA and hasmat protocol paperwork. Yet thousands of us still sped our days covered in crude oil and chemicals without them raising an eyebrow.

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dvmdsc
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#3
In reply to #2

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 11:08 PM

It is all about dose: dose is time exposed X level of exposure.

They have also individual protection and most of the time they are outside and in the wind.

Out of 50 co-workers INSIDE a coating factory 6 are still alive, all the others died.

The survivers: have health problems - smell and taste gone, cancers. Also only for 2 or 3 decades. Toluene, Xylene, Benzenes.

Crude has still a lot more different elements as decribed by Peter. Be careful.

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palinurus
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#4
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Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 11:17 PM

So, how come the average life span of a person who did clean up on the Exxon Valdes is 51, and how come almost all those people who did clean up there are dead?

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the wrench
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#7
In reply to #4

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 11:56 PM

What is the validation of that statistic?

beware of the misplaced decimal point........
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Apothicus
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#14
In reply to #2

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/28/2010 12:37 PM

You sound like a coal miner I used to know.

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bwire
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#18
In reply to #2

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/29/2010 6:05 AM

Health concerns related to oil spills

Cancer does not develop immediately after contact with a cancer-causing agent. Often there is a long time period, such as 15 to 30 years, between the exposure to a carcinogen (a cancer-causing substance) and medical diagnosis of cancer. This makes it very difficult to track what caused the cancer. Cancers are usually related to long-term lifestyle factors (like smoking) or significant exposure to a carcinogen for many years.

An acquaintance related that his crew and himself nearly bathed in PCBs at times and he never has had any cancers to show for it, though his wife and daughters whom handled his dirty clothing each have several instances of various cancers. This scenario has played out in many instances when a worker was involved in the petrochemical industry including oil field work.

It is interesting when viewed from a perspective including the thoughts where certain cancers and or illnesses seem to run in family's though no known form of person to person transfer or inheritance factors are known while family's bridging several generations are involved in specific occupations. Ironic how later generations not participating in the suspect occupations do not experience the problem; coincidence.

Our societal preference of petrochemical use causes an overwhelming burden of ills.

I've not considered myself an environmentalist nor a health nut but we're kidding ourselves in the pervasive use of these dangerous chemicals; the manner of transportation and storage is inadequate at best.

What is reasonable survivability without chromosomal defect exposure limit for toluene, mercury, benzene and chromium?

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the wrench
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#5

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 11:26 PM

Well, do not for get the " attornyoline and lawyerelen" that is also part of the liquid that comes out of those wells. That will cause severe courtroomitis, that will need to be "treated" in the judicial system.

beware the miss placed decimal point......
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C-Mac
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#6

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/26/2010 11:39 PM

Reply to #4--Could you please give all of us the source of these statistics? Quite a broad brush being used, stats wise.
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palinurus
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#10
In reply to #6

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/27/2010 12:27 AM

AP

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peterg7lyq
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#8

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/27/2010 12:22 AM

Dr. Ott shares the profound legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how readers can help reshape our global energy future.

This book chronicles the long-lasting environmental harm to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and investigates the health problems suffered by many cleanup workers. Exxon's spill provided a portal to understanding a startling truth: oil is much more toxic than we previously thought. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ frames the larger story of discovery of the truly toxic nature of oil.

This book shows how one particular fraction of crude oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, may well be the new DDT of the twenty-first century. In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 22 PAHs in crude oil as "persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) pollutants." Sharing this list of extreme human health hazards are the more commonly known pollutants––mercury, lead, dioxin, PCBs, and DDT. The latter are all highly regulated chemicals and some, such as DDT and PCBs, have been banned in the United States.

Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ traces 15 years of lingering harm to humans and wildlife from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It reveals how corporate greed, government short-sightedness, and manipulation of the truth and the media have kept the public from learning the deadly nature of PAHs. The author provides relevant information and practical recommendations for people and policy-makers at this critical juncture in the history of civilization. This book will inspire people to reduce their own consumption of fossil fuels and, in so doing, help permanently shift society to a clean energy future.

above taken from http://www.valdezlink.com/media/pages/rr/book.htm

State health officials are warning people who are sensitive to reduced air quality to stay indoors, but anyone who experiences the classic symptoms of crude oil overexposure–nausea, vomiting, headaches, or cold or flu-like symptoms–should seek medical help.

This is serious: Oil spill cleanups are regulated as hazardous waste cleanups because oil is, in fact, hazardous to health. Breathing oil fumes is extremely harmful.

After the 2002 Prestige oil spill off Galicia, Spain, and the 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill in South Korea, medical doctors found fishermen and cleanup workers suffered from respiratory problems, central nervous system problems (headaches, nausea, dizziness, etc.), and even genetic damage (South Korea). I have attended two international conferences the past two years to share information with these doctors.

During the Exxon Valdez spill, health problems among cleanup workers became so widespread, so fast, that medical doctors, among others, sounded warnings. Dr. Robert Rigg, former Alaska medical director for Standard Alaska (BP), warned, "It is a known fact that neurologic changes (brain damage), skin disorders (including cancer), liver and kidney damage, cancer of other organ systems, and medical complications–secondary to exposure to working unprotected in (or inadequately protected)–can and will occur to workers exposed to crude oil and other petrochemical by-products. While short-term complaints, i.e., skin irritation, nausea, dizziness, pulmonary symptoms, etc., may be the initial signs of exposure and toxicity, the more serious long-term effects must be prevented."[1]

Unfortunately, Exxon called the short-term symptoms, "the Valdez Crud," and dismissed 6,722 cases of respiratory claims from cleanup workers as "colds or flu" using an exemption under OSHA's hazardous waste cleanup reporting requirements.[2]

Sadly, sick Exxon cleanup workers were left to suffer and pay their own medical expenses. I know of many who have been disabled by their illnesses – or have died.

I have repeatedly warned Congress in letters and in person to strike that loophole because it exempts the very work-related injuries–chemical induced illnesses–that OSHA is supposedly designed to protect workers from.

Remember the "Katrina Crud" and the "911 Crud?" Standby for the "Gulf Crud" because our federal laws do not adequately protect worker safety or public health from the very real threat of breathing oil vapors, including low levels typically found in our industrial ports, our highways during rush hour traffic, and our urban cities.

Oil is not only harmful to people, it is deadly to wildlife. I am sickened to think of the short-term destruction and long-term devastation that will happen along America's biologically rich coastal wetlands – a national treasure and a regional source of income

taken from

http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/05/02/lessons-from-the-exxon-valdez-spill/

http://environment.about.com/od/environmentalevents/p/exxon_valdez.htm
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peterg7lyq
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#11
In reply to #8

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/27/2010 12:27 AM

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Janissaries
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#13
In reply to #8

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/28/2010 9:52 AM

Excuses to avoid paying workers medical benefits for work related illnesses is Fascism at its finest.

Corporations get away with that because they can. They hold influence over the agencies and not the other way around. They'll pay out on small scale workmans comp cases but on the big ones forget it. Look at the Vietnam vets and agent orange.

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bwire
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#17
In reply to #13

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/29/2010 4:27 AM

The line is long if you're criticizing monsanto.

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PWSlack
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#12

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/28/2010 4:03 AM

Crude oil is hazardous to the health of companies' share prices!

Water is hazardous to health! The LD50 for humans is about 80kg. One can drown in rather less.

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#15

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/28/2010 5:16 PM

Let's see. I've been wrenching my dirt bikes, cars, trucks, lawn mowers, chainsaws for several decades exposed to motor oils, greases, gasoline, acetone, MEK, kerosene and so on. I have developed a little eczema on my hands from time to time. I usually wear gloves if I'm going to get real messy. I'm almost 50 now and other than some minor skin irritation, that's it. Oh, yeah, I forgot the vapor bath of 1,1,1-trichloroethylene we used to degrease silicon wafers to remove the wax after polishing as part of my summer and part time job back in the eighties. Forgive me if I'm just a little skeptical.
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peterg7lyq
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#16
In reply to #15

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/28/2010 6:31 PM

same here by all accounts i should be dead ( some wish i were and some are convinced i am )

i have never used barrier cream or plastic/rubber gloves, and the 19 fingers on my 3 hands are fine.

but then i haven't sat in crude oil which may be different
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Janissaries
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#19
In reply to #15

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/29/2010 9:38 AM

That's not the same. That oil is refined for that purpose and much of the other chemicals have been removed.

They take that raw crude oil and evaporate it and as the evaporation rises, they remove the heavier substances at lower levels of the stack and the lighter substances higher up the stack and the useless substances are burned at the top.

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#20

Re: Is Crude Oil Hazardous To Your Health

06/29/2010 8:02 PM

http://www.healblog.net/medical/gulf-oil-spill-workers-report-health-problems/

With the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico now in its sixth week, reports of clean-up workers falling unwell are on the rise.

Within the past week, they have seen a number of workers hospitalized. Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council mentioned that is new.

More than a dozen workers have been treated at local medical centers for flu-like symptoms ranging from chest pain to dizziness, nausea and headaches, presumably due to contact to diverse chemicals emanating from the slick, according to news reports.

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Apothicus (1); Brave Sir Robin (1); bwire (3); C-Mac (1); dvmdsc (1); Janissaries (2); palinurus (2); peterg7lyq (5); PWSlack (1); tcmtech (1); the wrench (2)

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