Judge For Yourself: Health Risk Information About BP's Crude Oil Disaster

 From the CDC, published today: "Occupational health and safety experts have questioned the Offshore Air Monitoring Plan for Source Control, BP’s plan to protect the health of the more than 24,400 workers cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, because they say it exposes workers to higher levels of toxic chemicals than is generally acceptable. The clean-up effort exposes workers to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are subject to federal regulations that do not specify safety thresholds. Because of this, BP is not currently required to supply respirators, evacuate workers, or take other precautions. Critics say the plan allows workers to remain in an area where vapors are four times higher than accepted practice. “This protocol seems to be written in a way that allows them to continue to work when conditions are such that, in any other setting, you’d pull your workers or you’d put them in better protection,” said Mark Catlin, a worker safety advocate and expert who worked on the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill. BP spokesman Ray Viator, however, said that the plan is aggressively monitoring toxins and protecting workers. “It’s being managed by professionals who have reviewed the plan and who are making sure it’s been implemented correctly. It involves graduated responses and we’re prepared to accelerate it if the situation arises,” he said. The Coast Guard approved the plan on May 25, and although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reviewed the plan, the agency’s jurisdiction only extends three miles off-shore."

To form your own judgment on whether Americans in the affected area are receiving appropriate information from the federal government read and analyze the  CDC's evaluation of the BP Gulf  oil spill and consider applicable federal law pertinent to emergencies.

See Taylor's Miami Herald expert's analysis of the protection offered to works and residents of the affect area (referenced above).

And finally, if you can stomach it, take a look at Louisiana's May 5, 2010 information to its coastal citizens.