Fact Sheets & Scientific Reports
Dispersants : Myths and Facts
March 2019. The National Contingency Plan, which governs our nation’s oil and chemical pollution emergency responses, was last updated in 1994—25 years ago! The Plan governs dispersant use during oil spill response. The most commonly used Corexit dispersants are now known to increase, rather than mitigate, the harm from oil alone to people and wildlife.
Deadly Dispersants in the Gulf: Are Public Health and Environmental Tragedies the New Norm for Oil Spill Cleanups?
Government Accountability Project, 2013.
For the fifth anniversary of the BP oil disaster, Government Accountability Project released new investigative reports in an addendum to its 2013 report. The latest evidence further demonstrates devastating long-term effects on human health and the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem stemming from BP and the federal government’s unprecedented use of the dispersant Corexit in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Ten years after Deepwater Horizon: Whistleblowers continue to suffer an unending medical nightmare triggered by Corexit
Government Accountability Project, 2020
This report summarizes the ongoing issues of 18 witnesses who are still suffering the effects of the BP disaster. “On balance, the public health impacts identified in this third investigation continue to confirm an unacceptable conclusion: Corexit has caused the most gut-wrenching, sustained public health tragedies of any issue Government Accountability Project has investigated in over 40 years.”
Health consequences among subjects involved in Gulf oil spill clean-up activities,
The American Journal of Medicine, Vol. 126(11):966-974.
Oil spills are known to affect human health through the exposure of inherent hazardous chemicals such as para-phenols and volatile benzene. This study assessed the adverse health effects of the Gulf oil spill exposure in subjects participating in the clean-up activity along the coast of Louisiana.