BP Gulf Oil Spill's Walking Dead

"And I think the media now has to...tell the American people
who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf." - Hugh
Kaufman, senior EPA analyst, admits millions have been poisoned in the Gulf
states.

(CHICAGO) - A biochemical bomb went off in the Gulf of Mexico on
April 20, 2010--as dangerous and destructive as a nuclear blast.

While an atom bomb’s destruction can be measured immediately
after detonation, BP’s unintentional biochemical bomb is a slow-motion explosion
that's driving a continuing disaster. Unfortunately, lingering death occurs with
both types of explosions.

Millions exposed to uncontrolled hemorrhaging, lesions,
cancers

Recently, frustrated scientists presented evidence that millions
of Gulf area residents were poisoned by the BP Gulf disaster. Worse, they
believe that millions more could be exposed to long term poisoning.

Yet other than those worried scientists few seemed to care.

Now more frightening evidence has emerged: areas of the Gulf
Coast may have been saturated with high levels of benzene, hydrogen sulfide and
radioactive hydrocarbon effluents--three deadly substances that can cause
disease and death years after the initial exposures.

[Full report available here.]

The EPA and the ongoing news
blackout

The curtain of silence that dropped just days after the Deepwater
Horizon blowout has never been fully lifted. At the time, a no-man's land was
created prohibiting fishermen, reporters, news helicopters and civilian sea and
air craft from approaching the immediate disaster zone. The US Coast Guard and
BP conducted joint operations feverishly attempting to quell the spreading
disaster.

Reporters were threatened with arrest. News stories were yanked.
Scientific reports buried. And data from the NOAA research vessel--initially
sent to the region to take readings of the seafloor--was suppressed.

Yet some information leaked.

Beyond the oil gushing into the Gulf at a rate never before seen,
deadly methane gas flooded the region. The methane reached such high levels of
density in the Gulf that brilliant scientists like Dr. John Kessler of Texas
A&M; recorded stunning readings of methane--amounts one million times higher
than normal. His reports managed to reach the media.

Although access to the forbidden zone has been restored, a
partial news blackout remains in place blocking public access to the data that
measured toxicity in the Gulf waters and Gulf states from April into August.

A conveyor belt of death: deep
sea oil plume 22-miles long

Poisons flooded into the Gulf for three months. Unabated, these
poisons have affected the ecology of the region. Now evidence is mounting that
the delicate infrastructure of life inhabiting the Gulf continues to absorb much
of the poison and is passing it on to unsuspecting humans. Reports that sea life
in the Gulf have remained uncontaminated are being vigorously challenged.

And new reports are circulating the globe that the missing oil’s
been found. A plume 22-miles long is suspended deep in the cold, dark waters of
the Gulf. It’s not breaking up and it’s not being eaten by microbes.

It is, however, acting as a conveyor belt of death.

Cocktail of
poisons

Some environmental experts are calling what’s pouring into the
land, sea and air from the seabed breach ‘a chemical cocktail of poisons.’

Areas of methane dead zones devoid of oxygen are continuing to
drive species of fish into foreign waters, are killing plankton and other tiny
sea life that are the foundation for the entire food chain, and are polluting
the air with cancer-causing chemicals and poisonous rainfalls.

And before the news blackout fully descended, the EPA released
data that benzene levels in New Orleans had rocketed to as high as 3,000 parts
per billion (ppb).

Benzene is extremely toxic, even short term exposure at low
levels can cause agonizing illness and slow death from cancerous lesions and
leukemia years later. But 3,000ppb is far from a low reading.

Hydrogen sulfide was also detected by the EPA monitoring stations
around the New Orleans area. The EPA reported hydrogen sulfide levels as high as
1200ppb. A normal, safe level falls between 5 to 10ppb.

Recently, Ron Kendall, an ecotoxicologist from Texas Tech
University, was interviewed by National Geographic concerning the affect of the
poisons released by the blown out well on bacteria and plankton in the Gulf.

The results were not looking good. Indications of a major,
ongoing poisoning occurring in the Gulf were widespread. "This is what we've
been worried about, because this is the base of the food chain," he told
National Geographic. "Any effects on that level can work their way right on
up."

Meaning right up the food chain to humans--many of whom have
already been exposed to poisons from the air and water.

The bio-chemical time
bomb

According to a report issued by Michael Harbart, Professor of
internal medicine at Wayne State University and Kathleen Burns, Ph.D., Director
of Sciencecorps, long-term exposure of the chemicals released by the ongoing BP
Gulf disaster--at relatively low levels--should be avoided at all costs because
"the potential for serious health damage is substantial. Chronic health effects
are typically evaluated for specific crude oil components and vary from cancer
to permanent neurological damage. They cover a range of diseases affecting all
the organ systems..." [Sciencecorps.org: “Gulf Oil Spill Health Hazards”]

Senior EPA analyst admits
millions poisoned in Gulf

Recently--in an eye-opening interview with 'Democracy Now!'--Hugh
Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response, made this shocking admission:

"And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as
they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for
poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf."

As Alexander Higgins at 'Democracy Now!' points out: “Hugh
Kaufman has been at the EPA since the Agency was created in the early 1970s, as
an engineer, investigator and policy analyst. Prior to joining the EPA in the
beginning of 1971, he was a captain in the US Air Force. He helped write all the
Federal laws regulating the treatment, storage, disposal, and remediation of
solid and hazardous waste. He has been the Chief Investigator on numerous
contamination cases, including Love Canal and Times Beach.”

[For links to the transcript of interview and the EPA analyst’s
video testimony, go here.]

The walking dead

Like those exposed to the Russian Chernobyl disaster, or the many
thousands now sick and dying after exposure to the 9-11 Twin Towers toxic cloud,
the people of the Gulf coast may have joined the ranks of the walking dead.

Experts cannot predict with any certainty that the poisons will
be contained exclusively to the Gulf states. Weather patterns and the variable
density of the substances could conceivably expand the Death Zone into parts of
the Midwest and East coast of the United States.

Download the PDFs and study the scientific papers here.

Review the 26 source links here.

Access the video interview of EPA whistle blower Hugh Kaufman here.

______________________________________________________________

>Terrence
Aym is a Salem-News.com Contributor based in Chicago, who is well known
nationally for his stirring reports on the top ranked site, helium.com.

----Addendum----

"Benzene and Other Toxic Solvents and Chemicals" - Benzene
is a known human carcinogen. Work-related exposure to benzene has been linked to
the development of blood cancers and blood disorders. Examples of blood diseases
that may be caused by occupational benzene exposure include acute myelogenous
leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome (which can
progress into acute myelogenous leukemia over time), aplastic anemia, acute
lymphocytic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and
multiple myeloma. Certain other toxic solvents and chemicals may also be a cause
of blood cancers and disorders. Link: http://www.leukemiainfocenter.com/Benzene_Toxicity.html