Articles Posted in Toxic Injury

Scientists and environmental groups are raising questions about 5,000 gallons per day estimate. They also criticize BP for refusing to use scientific techniques that would give a more precise figure.

BP has repeatedly claimed that measuring the plume of oil gushing from the broken well would be impossible.

The issue of how fast the well is leaking has been unclear from the beginning. For several days after the April 21 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the government and BP claimed that the well on the ocean floor was leaking about 1,000 barrels a day.

An Oklahoma City jury has ordered Allergan Inc., the maker of Botox Cosmetic, to pay $15 million to a local doctor who claimed she suffered botulism poisoning from the product.

Dr. Sharla Helton claimed in her lawsuit that the illness she suffered as a result of Botox injections in 2006 caused her to quit her job. The jury said they ruled against Allergan Inc. because their Botox product did not have adequate information about side affects on its warning label. Nolan Clay, NewsOK.com 05/12/2010
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The effort to contain the oil spill that has poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico encountered a setback, according to officials. This means that oil will continue gushing into the ocean for possibly months.

Workers earlier maneuvered a containment dome over the remaining leaks on the seabed to funnel the oil to the surface, where it would be collected by a drill ship.

Read the full story here at the New York Times.

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In the worst case, the disaster could grow at 12 times the rate of current estimates, BP officials say at a Capitol Hill briefing.

BP officials told congressional representatives that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could grow at a rate more than 10 times current estimates in a worst-case scenario — greatly enlarging the potential scope of the disaster.

Most of the handful of congressional Democrats and Republicans who met with representatives from BP, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill walked away unimpressed.

Read full LA Times story here.

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With each day that the leaking oil well a mile below the surface remains uncapped, scientists and energy industry observers are imagining outcomes that range from bad to worse to worst, with some forecasting a calamity of historic proportions.

Executives from oil giant BP and other energy companies, meanwhile, shared their own worst-case scenario in a Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers, saying that if they fail to close the well, the spill could increase from an estimated 5,000 barrels a day to 40,000 barrels.

Read the full Washington Post Story here.

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Where the world runs out of road and into bayou, and all that is left beyond is the Gulf of Mexico, dozens of docked shrimp boats bob in place. They should be out right now, green nets trawling for cash in crustaceans.

Among these many boats — actually, between the Capt. Andy and the Capt. James — there rocks the St. Martin. And on the St. Martin, there lives its owner, a Vietnamese-born American named Thuong Nguyen, whose right forearm bears a tattoo that says, in his native language:

“Life is difficult.”
Read the full New York Times story here.

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The government ordered a halt on Sunday to fishing in areas affected by the ever-spreading oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, a ban that covers waters from Louisiana to Florida and hinders the livelihoods of untold numbers of fishermen.

Citing public safety concerns, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration restricted fishing for at least 10 days in the affected waters, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Pensacola Bay in Florida. Scientists were taking samples of water and seafood to ensure food safety.

Read the full New York Times story here.

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BP’s chief executive is coming under mounting pressure over the vast spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico, which was caused when a giant drilling rig there caught fire and sank, with the loss of 11 crew members. The oil, still spewing from the well on the ocean floor, threatens to blacken the Louisana shoreline, and BP’s reputation.

When Mr. Hayward took over BP’s leadership three years ago, the company was badly run, accident-prone and accused in the aftermath of a deadly explosion at its Texas City refinery of putting profits before safety.

None of that seems to matter now, as BP heads into the crisis grinder. And with about 5,000 barrels of oil leaking from the damaged well each day.

Read the full WSJ story here.

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