US Coast Guard ignores chemical limits

A BP worker holds up a sample of water taken from the
Gulf of Mexico to be tested, while working off Louisiana's coast


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137137§ionid=3510203


The US Coast Guard is under fire for allowing the use of huge amounts of chemical dispersants to fight the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico waters.

According to a Washington Post report on Sunday, the US Coast Guard, which is in charge of the oil spill clean-up, allowed BP to deploy dispersants 74 times over 54 days.

The chemicals were used both on the surface and deep beneath at the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, which ruptured an undersea well, killing 11 workers.

This is while on May 26, US President Barack Obama ordered a strict mandate to limit the use of such chemicals.

The dispersants were deployed to break down the leaking crude oil into smaller particles, which will not wash up on the Gulf coasts.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that they are being used, the chemicals are considered to be a "tradeoff" that shifts the ecological burden from the Gulf shores to deep sea life, Carys Mitchelmore, an expert in aquatic toxins, told CNN.

This is because some organisms deep under the ocean will see the smaller droplets "as food", Mitchelmore added.

The findings were revealed by an analysis of federal documents prepared by the office of US Congressman Edward Markey, the Post said.

The recent development comes as authorities in the state of Louisiana reopened 2,400 square miles (6,200 square km) of coastal waters for fishing.

The US Food and Drug Administration has deemed seafood harvested from such open areas safe for human consumption.

BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles has also stated that he would "absolutely" eat Gulf of Mexico seafood and would even feed it to his family.

However, environmentalists, who believe that the seafood has undergone an insufficient amount of testing, warn that BP's use of chemicals means that there are lingering questions about toxicity in the fish.