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News Briefs
Exxon Damage Award Thrown Out While Cleanup Workers' Health Suffers
Nov 21, 2001 --
A federal appeals court struck down the $5 billion punitive damage award against ExxonMobil for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, in which 11 million gallons of oil spilled into Prince William Sound. The award was decided by a jury verdict in 1994. This sets back the prospects for the 10,000 fishers, Alaskan Natives and others whose livelihood was, and continues to be, damaged by the spill. The court recommended that the district court which first heard the case reduce the award, likely to between $1.2 and $1.6 billion. Many fishing communities in Alaska continue to be affected; there has not been a commercial herring harvest since 1993. The decline in the Pacific herring population is likely linked to exposure to the oil, which makes the fish more susceptible to disease.
Meanwhile, the people who worked to clean up the oil are continuing to suffer worsening health conditions, which many attribute to working in the oil and solvents. There were approximately 15,000 people from all over the world who helped clean up the spill. Los Angeles legal investigator Erin Brockovich recently began to investigate the case of these workers, who suffer from problems ranging from nausea and nosebleeds to chronic headaches, liver and kidney problems and cancer. ExxonMobil claims that safety standards were followed in the cleanup.
Reader Comments
Discuss this article in the forums!
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Margaret Hursh
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Sep 09, 2003
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Valdez, Alaska
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rental management
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I knew someone who just found out the cause of his exhaustion about the time you wrote this article: low red blood cell anemia.
I started studying this topic when EPA wouldn't tell me what was in the Inipol EAP 22 that this bioremediation worker used. I can't tell you how much I learned. It is on a website, though, www.valdezlink.com/hi.htm and www.valdezlink.com/1989photos.htm would be a good place to start. I truely believe that these 1,000 bioremediation workers MUST be found www.valdezlink.com/home.htm as what happened to them must never happen to anyone else. Yet I fear that the Dept of Defense has bought one of the worst chemicals of the oil spill cleanup: Corexit which is 38% 2-butoxyethanol. and most likely has ethylene oxide which causes lungs to fill up with fluid. Please warn the military to rid themselves of this Corexit 9527. It's like having a land mine in your camp. www.valdezlink.com/warning.htm
Never again let someone responsible for harm - be in control of how the 'cleanup goes' www.valdezlink.com/inipol/pages/run.htm Let them pay the bills - fine - but not use it as a way to benefit financially from the experimental use of humans and the poor environment. The 1993 herring run? It appears that they had no bladders; so it was the 2-butoxyethanol that the grown fish swam thru that harmed 80% of the herring run. That's my theory and it makes sense. www.valdezlink.com/inipol/no.htm |
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Margaret Hursh
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Nov 19, 2003
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Valdez, Alaska
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rental management
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Our troops are being harmed by the same type of chemicals that harmed the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup workers.
http://www.valdezlink.com/gws_still.htm Hoping the public will require the Legislature to ban 2-butoxyethanol and Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether http://www.valdezlink.com/adn11-18-03.htm
http://www.valdezlink.com/generic.htm This is a lot bigger problem in our nation/world than you can possibly imagine. Request the military inventory all cleaner/degreaser products since 1989 that they are using. http://www.valdezlink.com/chad4.htm I firmly believe 'Gulf War Syndrome' is still going on. Troops have too much exposure to these chemicals as they clean their guns daily. That is too much exposure. Do they wear chemical retardant gloves & goggles? They should. http://www.valdezlink.com/how_to_contact.htm Please get involved. |
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Margaret Hursh
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Nov 23, 2004
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Valdez, Alaska
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Realtor
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http://www.seattlepress.com/features/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82
I am glad that their plans have been to use containment booms and oil skimmers, BRAVO! the right choice
Please DO NOT add the poison of Corexit or other 'dispersants' which only put the oil farther down in the water column for the fish to run into ... to run into the OIL and the POISON of 2-butoxyethanol.
Even burning the oil is a better choice than adding poison that hurts the workers and those who come along later, etc, etc. Here are some comments of the 1989 times, that might help us learn from the past.
2-butoxyethanol is in most dispersants.
http://www.valdezlink.com/inipol/pages/2-butoxy_msds.htm
It causes a lot of symptoms like those of 'gulf war syndrome' and CFS and Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome
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