Did Food Poisoning – Rather Than Oil Dispersants – Sicken BP Oil Spill Workers?

From Better Mississippi Report:

JACKSON (Tuesday, June 1, 2010) – As the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the rest of the world wait for BP to stop its ongoing, never-ending oil leak in the Gulf, The Times-Picayune reports in today’s edition about how BP continues to clash with critics over the disaster.

Reading through the story, you’ll find tidbits on comments from BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward who contradicted scientists and some of his company’s previous statements by denying that dispersants are creating unseen underwater oil plumes.

As Hayward told The Associated Press: “The oil is on the surface. There aren’t any plumes.”

BP clearly wants to calm Gulf Coast residents. There aren’t any problems. In fact, Hayward’s remarks kind of resembled ones he made last weekend in which he apologized for the spill and the problems it has caused and continues to cause. “I’m sorry,” he said.

The Times-Picayune report, however, raises a few other interesting issues. And one – related to an oil spill worker who was hospitalized over the weekend after trying to contain BP’s oil mess – is particularly alarming and deserves attention.

Local fisherman, contracted as part of the Vessels of Opportunity program, deploy as part of the Deepwater Horizon Response May 30, 2010.

A fisherman, who was among nine cleanup workers airlifted to New Orleans-area hospitals with signs of illness last week, filed a complaint in federal court Sunday alleging that BP made him take a decontamination shower and confiscated his clothes before he entered West Jefferson Medical Center. The fisherman, James Wunstell of Galliano, is asking a federal judge to order BP to stop taking items that could provide evidence of the dispersants’ toxic effect.

“At West Jefferson, there were tents set up outside the hospital, where I was stripped of my clothing, washed with water and several showers, before I was allowed into the hospital,” said Wunstell in a sworn statement from his hospital bed Saturday. “When I asked for my clothing, I was told that BP had confiscated my clothing and it would not be returned.”

Wunstell’s affidavit says he suffered headaches, nose irritation and a spike in blood pressure while working on his boat in the spill zone, where he said planes were spraying chemical dispersants. But the dispersants are not on a federal list of hazardous materials, and (the BP spokesman) said that BP is performing constant air-quality tests that have shown no dangerous readings.

Crews anchor boom in Grand Isle, La., as part of the Deepwater Horizon Response May 27, 2010.

“I’m sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill,” Hayward said. “You know, food poisoning is clearly a big issue when you have a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps, temporary accommodation. It’s something we have to be very, very mindful of. It’s one of the big issues of keeping the army operating. You know, armies march on their stomachs.”