Much of America believes that the health problems of Gulf residents are over. Unfortunately, that is not the case.  At present there are serious health problems among many people in Gulf states. The reasons are not clear, but most people apparently  believe it’s from the BP oil or the dispersants, thanks to the oil disaster of last spring.   Below is a recent story about this issue, with a video from last November at a hearing of Gulf residents.  This has been going on for a long time — why isn’t this making the mainstream media?

Cherri Foytlin at the Rally for the Truth about the BP Oil Spill contamination of the gulf seafood supply and effects of dispersant on the people who live there. ~ Grand Isle LA

Full event recorded live: http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/MBN/Gr…

Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help
Inter Press Service
By Dahr Jamail

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, Jan 14, 2011 (IPS) – In an emotionally charged meeting [last week] sponsored by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, fishermen, Gulf residents and community leaders vented their increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues brought on by the three-month-long disaster.

“Today I’m talking to you about my life,” Cherri Foytlin told the two commissioners present at the Jan. 12 meeting. “My ethylbenzene levels are 2.5 times the 95th percentile, and there’s a very good chance now that I won’t get to see my grandbabies…What I’m asking you to do now, if possible, is to amend [your report]. Because we have got to get some health care.”

Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when it begins to break down. It is also present in BP’s crude oil.

“I have seen small children with lesions all over their bodies,” Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, a community organisation based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, continued.

“We are very, very ill. And dead is dead. So it really doesn’t matter if the media comes back… or the president hears us, or… if the oil workers and the fishermen and the crabbers get to feed their babies and maybe have a good Christmas next year… Dead is dead…I know your job is probably already done, but I’d like to hire you if you don’t mind. And God knows I can’t pay you. But I need your heart. And I need your voice.”

Toxic Symptoms in the Dispersants:

Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause the following health problems:

Headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal functions, irritation of the digestive tract, lung damage, burning pain in the nose and throat, coughing, pulmonary edema, cancer, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, delayed reaction time, memory difficulties, stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, and hematological disorders.

Commissioner Frances Beinecke, president of [...]