Another Example of Severe Disease From Toxic Exposures

Not only did the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on New York have an immediate destructive effect on lives and structures, as  Aldrich and others' New England Journal of Medicine 4/8/2010 article concluded, carefull follow-up studies have shown a substantial number of rescue workers to have serious permanent abnormalities in lung function from their massive acute exposure to dust at the World Trade Center site both at the time of the attack and afterwards. The workers' health will never be the same.

Unlike today's  BP downwind exposure victims, politicians rushed to New York and the Pentagon to laud firefighters and Emergency Service Workers for their heroism and self sacrifice as they worked to save lives and property. The news media featured pictures of the rescue workers and highlighted their service above self-interest in the face of an horrific American tragedy. America recognized the sacrifices those people had made.

But the toxic exposure of children and adults in Louisiana downwind from BP's mess seems to merit no such interest although Obama has made cursory trips to the area and today's New York Times shows a sympathetic  picture of an oiled bird and an antiseptic picture of oil decontamination in Alabama. What about toxic exposure of the the adults and children  (who could not afford to run self-serving costly full-page newspaper ads, as BP did) to the fumes from  BP's flood of oil and the possible health consequences of that exposure. What is the extent of their exposure, what consequences can be predicted and why is our government and news media not talking about this issue?

Is there a conspiracy of silence?  Or is it just an election year? Or is BP advertising revenue a factor?