CNN: Almost all of the Exxon Valdez cleanup crew is dead | Hacker News Reader

CNN: Almost all of the Exxon Valdez cleanup crew is dead

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43 pointsAlex391714 comments

The title should read, "Kerry Kennedy: Almost all of the Exxon Valdez cleanup crew is dead"

Passing this on as CNN fact-checked journalism is disingenuous.

My bad, I thought she was a CNN journalist. I don't normally watch CNN. If they only brought her on to make that one claim though, shouldn't they have fact checked it first?

Fair enough, but it also wasn't clear to me from watching the clip that she wasn't a CNN journalist--I don't think the OP was trying to be disingenuous.

I quickly tried to look up some sources in order to verify her claims but came up empty so I can't say one way or the other whether these claims are accurate.

"Oil dispersant" is a vast term and can include various type of chemicals. The toxicity depends on the chemical used, the concentration and where it's used (e.g. water depth or next to the coast). As a lot of products are sold under a "trade/market name", it's often difficult to know the real components (even this is changing over time).

It reminds me of the products sold by Monsanto and similar companies hiding the real composition under a market name and told everyone : "it's a trade secret and we can't give you the components".

In any case, this is very suspicious.

Additional ref:

- http://www.amsa.gov.au/Marine_Environment_Protection/Nationa... - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-shannon/why-are-dispers...

A small update : the video, by itself, is not really a reliable source of information. But I don't know if the submission was about the "quality of CNN" or about the "oil dispersant". I assumed it was about the chemical product.

Unless there is any further evidence to back up this claim, I'd treat it as spurious. Is there a list of Exxon Valdez cleanup workers?

The effects of oil pollution on health are fairly well established from previous spills. Cleanup workers should wear protective clothing to avoid skin contact, and also respirators to avoid inhaling toxic volatiles.

Except BP is firing any cleanup workers that use a respirator and refusing to provide safety gear (BP says it's only fatigue and/or food poisoning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Q4bDW12Fr78

http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/06/bp-reportedly-threate...

(of many sources)

In this case BP is at best being disingenuous, since the health hazards from crude oil emissions are fairly well understood. People engaged in the operation without proper equipment are risking potentially serious and long term damage to their health.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster "confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release" ... "5,58,125 cases of injury resulting from the disaster, 5,16,406 (92.5%) were minor, 38,478 (6.8%) were temporary partial disablement while 0.7% (~3,900) were severely and permanently disabled"

That's a very different type of event, I'm not sure how this is relevant to the discussion at hand.

But at least the Exxon CEO got his life back! Wait, wrong decade.

USA is an odd mix of first world and third world. There is very little corruption in everyday life - police officers, fire department officers, general government workers - do not seem to take bribes (and indeed they do not). Yet, in upper levels - City Halls, State Governments,Congress = corruption is rampant, even Russia may be jealous. In USA truth belongs to those who have money. Law belongs to rich.

Once, in late 1980-s, US government tried to suppress information coming from USSR (!!) about problems caused by nuclear fallout after Chernobyl disaster, because in 50-s US made some experiments with controlled release of similar pollutant into atmosphere.

Welcome to country of freedom. You are free to not have information.

'There is very little corruption in everyday life - police officers, fire department officers, general government workers - do not seem to take bribes (and indeed they do not). Yet, in upper levels - City Halls, State Governments,Congress = corruption is rampant"

How in the world do you know this? Cops in the US don't take bribes? Really? This must be something that started in the last 10 years, at least based on what the I the cops I've known have told me. (Most cops did not, but certainly some did, in varying degrees.)

And corruption in City Hall, et al, is rampant? Multiple citations needed.

I've no doubt there is corruption at all levels, but assertions of it being rampant need some backing.

Jefferson County, Alabama - it is more than rampant I'd say. Other examples - there is a new book - Free Lunch, which talks a lot about subtle (and not very) ways local governments subsidize WalMarts, BestBuys etc.

It is very dangerous to attempt bribing cops in USA, compared to 3rd world, where it is safe and streamlined, like in grocery. Trust, I lived in 3rd world.

See, in USA it is hard to accuse some entity in corruption - there is concept of lobbying (which is legalized bribery), special interest groups, and the law, it is contrived, it is constructed the way to benefit big guys. Look, US patent laws are laugh-stock around the world, the medicines cost at least 30% more than in neighbor Canada. Medical insurance industry is one huge example of corruption in extreme scales. Bailout - another. And look at the clip again - nobody knows what BP uses, and there is no way you can learn that - gov-t does not care, because it is bought, been purchased, sold out.

Bill Heller's book A Good Day Has No Rain points to a cloud of radioactive fallout raining onto the Capital District region of New York.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Day-Has-No-Rain/dp/0878755462/ref...

Wood ash from burning firewood can concentrate radioaction levels found in some parts of the Eastern US. Enough above background levels to trip various radiation sensors. Here's what US EPA has to say about this:

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/marssim/docs/marsame/appendixB.p...

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