"Air safe to breathe"
"The impact of the environmental disaster after 911 will continue for years.
"The health of those who were exposed to the toxic dust and told that the 'Air was safe to breathe' and the continuing coverup of the problems has not been adequately reported in the mainstream media.
"Those who were most affected are often the least able to get the help they need.
"In 911: Dust and Deceit at the WTC, Filmmaker Penny Little interviews numerous experts, victims, and ground zero workers." (911: Dust and Deceipt)
HUGH KAUFMAN, senior engineer and former chief investigator for the EPA. Kaufman, who has been with the EPA since its inception in 1971, was the chief investigator for the EPA Ombudsman's office until he was removed after issuing critical reports. read more at "911: Dust and Deceipt," a film by Penny Little.
Feds Think Public Can’t Handle The Truth About Toxic Dispersants
MSNBC Countdown Interview, July 28th, 2010 at 09:21 PM with Sr. EPA Analyst Hugh Kaufman.
Transcript
Hugh Kaufman, Senior EPA Official, blows the whistle on the EPA for allowing BP to poison the Gulf and the workers who are trying to clean it up.
The real story about the dispersants in the Gulf:
One man in the EPA thinks the government is not telling the truth about the toxicity in the Gulf because it thinks the residents can’t handle the truth.
EPA Senior policy analyst is a veteran and legend of the agency, having had a hand in Love Canal and in the creation of the Superfund and helped expose the cover-up of air quality at Ground Zero.
Question: What should we know about the dispersants being used in the Gulf that the EPA isn’t telling us ?
Mr. Kaufman: First of all, the dispersants mixed with the oil and the water is extremely toxic. Sweden has done studies on this. Israel has done studies on this and the only real purpose of using so many dispersants with the oil was to cover up the volume of oil that was released from that well, so lying about how much is coming out was a mechanism to help BP save millions of dollars in fines.
Question: Should they have not used dispersants at all?
Mr. Kaufman: That’s correct…If they did not use dispersants they would have been able to get most of that oil off of the surface and would not have endangered all the fish, and ecosystem underneath that now will be affected for decades on down the line.
I was listening to some of the quote experts that are being paid by BP at universities who were saying that the oil has disappeared. It hasn’t disappeared!
It’s throughout thousands of square miles in the Gulf, mixed with the dispersants, and because the temperatures down there are so cold, they’re going to be around for decades.
Question: Now, were you, along with others, making the case, within the system, arguing that we shouldn’t be using dispersants there, and what was the response ?
Mr. Kaufman: Well, the working level troops in research, some of the toxicologists who have experience in education were trying to get management to pay attention to the data that EPA had and has had for decades, but to no avail. There was a political decision made to let BP take the lead, as opposed to the government being proactive as we used to be.
Question: When you say a "political decision," are you saying the decision was made by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, a Barack Obama appointee, or was it made outside of the EPA ?
Mr. Kaufman: The decision was made outside of the EPA, by political appointees, but I don’t have the vision to see how high up that was made…my vision is limited because I am in the middle of the bureaucracy.
Question: And what evidence is there the dispersants are doing the kind of damage you are talking about?
Mr. Kaufman: Well, we have seen anecdotal information of mammals in the water, like dolphins, bleeding from their orifices. Some of the workers who have done the spill clean-up are having the same problem.
The dispersant and oil mixtures are supposed to atomize materials like oil, well, if that gets into your system, that atomizes your cells and that is why there is herroraging. So, there is anecdotal information down there in the Gulf similar to the anecdotal information at the Exxon Valdez case almost twenty years ago.
Question: What is the best scientific approach from this point forward ?
Mr. Kaufman: Right now we are very limited, we have hundred of millions of gallons of oil spread out, mixed with two million gallons of dispersant. So what we have to do is accurately monitor the air and water, and be very careful with the seafood. But, we have now poisoned thousand of square miles of the Gulf and we have to recognize that and take precautions so that minimize the damage that we have done.
Statement: Hugh Kaufman, Senior Policy Analyst for the EPA, thank you for your insights on this tonight.
Source: MSNBC Countdown
This Examiner extends gratitude to her loyal subscriber who provided the above transcript.
Gulf Emergency Aid Need ASAP
“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.” - Thomas Merton (American and Trappist Monk, Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Trappist, Kentucky, 1915-1968)
See:
10 ways to aid Gulf victims in need right now and how to survive being poisoned
Aid for Americans fleeing chemical rape
Contact:
Orleans Barefoot Doctors for information about sending urgently needed technical support and supplies for Toxic Survival Kits they are distributing. Email delabarre@hotmail.com.
E. Harris if you or if you know someone pregnant and wanting to relocate from the Gulf Coast in need of financial help to leave. Phone 501.733.2409 or email touche.mobile@gmail.com.
Photo: Wikipedia
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