Dispersants Being Used by BP were Banned in UK

The dispersants being used by BP, in the most significant amounts in U.S. history, are completely banned for use in the U.K. and have been for over a decade.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is quietly getting worse as massive plumes of oil threaten to enter the Gulf loop current and the Atlantic Ocean. Because the oil is underneath the surface, knowing its exact size and location is essentially impossible.

To avoid allowing surface oil to harm wildlife such as birds and turtles, major amounts of dispersants were used to break down the oil and keep it away from the coastal land.

On Tuesday the New York Times reported that the two dispersants being used by BP, both of which are made by Corexit, have been completely banned for use in the United Kingdom.

The same Corexit dispersants were used to combat the Exxon-Valdez spill and were later blamed for causing respiratory problems, blood disorders, nervous system problems and kidney disorders in people living there.

The representatives from BP say the dispersants are “pretty effective” and that they have been “rigorously tested.”

Why can’t they just say that the dispersants have “passed rigorous tests?” I mean, it doesn’t matter how much you test something if it fails every time, right? If it failed 1,000 tests instead of failing just 500, does that mean it’s ready to use?

It seems like BP already had a big chunk of money invested in Corexit dispersants. With a massive pile of the chemicals sitting in storage somewhere, it would have been a wasteful move for BP.