BP's Gift That Keeps On Giving

At 6:15 AM today, on National Public Radio, I heard the word. A scientist was describing the conditions she encountered at the BP oil environmental catasrophe site and she said that she experienced a strong smell of benzene in the air.

Benzene causes bone marrow damage and cancer. Exposure of children, pregnant women, adults and the elderly to toxic benzene will have serious long term effects, including leukemia and other diseases caused by benzene's capacity to cause mutations. The problems BP has created will not be gone by Christmas; BP's gift will  create catastrophes for our people for many years.

Read for yourself and then start writing the White House and your Congress people, since both should shoulder the blame for allowing BP to cause this mess. Ask them to tell the truth about the environmental catastrophe BP has caused for people's health, not just the health of fish and birds and shrimp. Demand that the United States Public Health Service be responsible for tracking and publicly reporting the downstream health effects of BP's polution. Demand that BP pay all of the health care costs resulting from their pollution of the ocean and air, and not dump the costs on the government and its taxpayers. Demand that Congress adequately fund the agencies responsible for regulating oil drilling and that the White House staff the agencies, not with political cronies who will rubber stamp "APPROVED" on every harebrained idea proposed by oil companies which buy unregulated freedom through political contributions.

This was not just BP's failure. It was a failure of our government (the political and administrative actors are attempting to distance themselves from responsibility). Our children, men and women, workforce and industry are suffering from BP's destruction of our environment and continuing American government willful  incompetence.  Demand accountability.