Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill 'cleanup' made Toxicity worse, study finds
David Gutierrez
NaturalNews.com
December 01, 2012
Environmental Science: Toxicity in Water
Summary...In 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, so researches have been trying to clean up the spill since then, but what the Environmental Protection Agency noticed was that the clean up was actually making the spilled oil more than 50 times more toxic than doing nothing. This fact was said by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes, Mexico. In 2010 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled in the Gulf, so the EPA ordered another two million gallons of a chemical "dispersant" known as corexit to be poured into the water. But the energy between crude oil and and the dispersant that makes it more toxic. The dispersant is actually supposed to make the oil into tiny droplets so it can be dispersed so that it can spread out causing it to have a less impact in any one place. But the smaller the droplet the easier it can be to be absorbed into cells in animals.
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Reflection...I chose this article because first our assignment had to pick a scrAPES that had to do with toxins in the environment. I am very interested in ocean life and water life so I chose this article because it fascinated me the most. Its kind of ironic how a protection agency trying to help the environment is actually hurting it anymore even though their intentions are trying to assist wildlife and the environment around it. I think before conducting or ordering a plan upon a very sensitive environment such as the Gulf, scientists should test the dispersant and the sample of oil in sea water before actually throwing gallons of the "helper" into a vulnerable environment. Even if it was tested first, there was still a problem, so for future references experiments and research should be held seriously and deeply before moving on to the next step.
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