[saintpetegirl]

This has me very concerned - and *no one* is talking about it. Some days I can smell oil/chemicals from my place. The oil burns are ongoing and frequent. As of today there have been 220 controlled burns - 5.2 million gallons.
_________________

Should you worry about burning the oil spill?

As cleanup workers burn off oil from BP’s ruined Deepwater Horizon well, the black clouds of smoke soaring skyward are carrying questions about health risks, along with a thick helping of soot, volatile gases and other toxic byproducts.

The most immediate risk is to cleanup workers or others in proximity to the burn, according to Dr. Phil Harber, head of the division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

However, depending on the eventual scope of the burn, and length of the cleanup effort, others on shore could be affected, says Harber. “People with asthma, or who are very young, or who have cardiac disease, are much more likely to be sensitive the released pollutants.”

Should you worry about burning the oil spill? – Paging Dr. Gupta - CNN.com Blogs

DH press release with burn info:

Unified Command for the BP Oil Spill | The Ongoing Administration-Wide Response to the Deepwater BP Oil Spill

[stpeteguy]

Originally Posted by oopsydaisy

Where are those forums? I'd be interested in reading them. Thanks

The Oil Drum | Discussions about Energy and Our Future

http://drillingclub.proboards.com/index.cgi

[stpeteguy]

Originally Posted by saintpetegirl

This has me very concerned - and *no one* is talking about it. Some days I can smell oil/chemicals from my place. The oil burns are ongoing and frequent. As of today there have been 220 controlled burns - 5.2 million gallons.
_________________

Should you worry about burning the oil spill?

As cleanup workers burn off oil from BP’s ruined Deepwater Horizon well, the black clouds of smoke soaring skyward are carrying questions about health risks, along with a thick helping of soot, volatile gases and other toxic byproducts.

The most immediate risk is to cleanup workers or others in proximity to the burn, according to Dr. Phil Harber, head of the division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

However, depending on the eventual scope of the burn, and length of the cleanup effort, others on shore could be affected, says Harber. “People with asthma, or who are very young, or who have cardiac disease, are much more likely to be sensitive the released pollutants.”

Should you worry about burning the oil spill? – Paging Dr. Gupta - CNN.com Blogs

DH press release with burn info:

Unified Command for the BP Oil Spill | The Ongoing Administration-Wide Response to the Deepwater BP Oil Spill

The main stream media seems more concerned with beating up BP or the latest Joran Van der Sloot nonsense , than covering the scope of this disaster.

And what really bothers me is how little people actually care or understand about this. Even people who live on the gulf coast!! Most people have their heads in the sand and don't want to believe anything except what they hear on CNN or FOX.

Thankfully, we have the internet, so we can do our research and draw our own conclusions.

[wiltznucs]

Originally Posted by stpeteguy

The truth about this oil spill is going to continue to come out. From the massively under reported amounts of oil spewing from the well head, to the unexpected health consequences.

As the well itself continues to deteriorate and the oil itself begins lapping up on the tampa bay area beaches, it is going to bring a myriad of problems our way. It is my belief that there is a strong possibility, that people could be forced to evacuate from gulf beach areas.

If you've been thinking about moving here, you might want to find another destination.

I've been following a lot of researchers who are studying the oil spill very carefully and the information is truly dire and frightening.

Florida and the entire gulf is going to be literally ruined for a long, LONG time.

This is a just a heads up for the people who never really watch the news and don't really understand the scope of the situation we are in.

I grew up in SW Louisiana, and have several family members employed in the oil industry. Theres no doubt whats happened is tragic. There will be an environmental and economic impact but it will be years before the true scope of the damage is understood.

But lets be honest, can you name a single occasion where the American media was guilty of underreporting an item? Certainly not, if anything the American media is guilty of sensationalizing most items.

If you go to the front page of CNN.com today you'll find video of Joran Vander Sloots Peruvian jail cell, three articles about a poor murderer getting executed in Utah, and people protesting Angelina Jolie being chosen to portray Cleopatra in a movie.

Want recent examples of sensationalization... Tell me how many people that you know died of a Africanized killer bee attack, the Asian Bird Flu, the H1N1 virus, or had their lives wrecked by the Y2K disaster...

The bottom line is this, a spill of this magnitude is unprecedented. There are no experts on the situation as this has never happened before. I hope most readers who see your predictions of doom and gloom take them with a grain of salt and realize your by no means an authority on the situation and neither are the posters on the websites you provided.

[stpeteguy]

Originally Posted by wiltznucs

I grew up in SW Louisiana, and have several family members employed in the oil industry. Theres no doubt whats happened is tragic. There will be an environmental and economic impact but it will be years before the true scope of the damage is understood.

But lets be honest, can you name a single occasion where the American media was guilty of underreporting an item? Certainly not, if anything the American media is guilty of sensationalizing most items.

If you go to the front page of CNN.com today you'll find video of Joran Vander Sloots Peruvian jail cell, three articles about a poor murderer getting executed in Utah, and people protesting Angelina Jolie being chosen to portray Cleopatra in a movie.

The bottom line is this, a spill of this magnitude is unprecedented. There are no experts on the situation as this has never happened before. I hope most readers who see your predictions of doom and gloom take them with a grain of salt and realize your by no means an authority on the situation and neither are the posters on the websites you provided.

Your absolutely right. I am by no means an authority on the subject. I try to read many different view points from many different sources and formulate an opinion based on that.

I am actually a middle of the road kind of guy. I think most situations like this are never as bad as the extremes would report and never as good as the opposite extremes would report. Somewhere in the middle is usually the truth.

If you think i'm doom and gloom, read this:


How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions - by Terrence Aym - Helium

[HeartofFlorida]

Interactive Map:
GATOR (Geospatial Assessment Tool for Operations and Response)

Follow on your own. An oil sheen was located off Little St. George Island in the Panhandle yesterday.

[Johan1983]

Originally Posted by HughMcs

I'm thinking about canceling our vacation plans for St Pete this summer.

Why?

I am going there in a few weeks and i read alot about it and the oil is not even close to St Petersburg.

St Petersburg and Tampa Bay could be the area in Florida that gets through this the best.

St Pete need yours and other peoples trust, not cancellations of vacation plans.

[oneballnoa]

The oil is not anywhere near St. Pete right now. The Gulf Stream has been our saving grace. I would also like to point out that there is a trend in the media to sensationalize and over-hype everything. I am in no way saying that the oil spill is not horrendous and has and will continue to devastate wild life and the environment for a very long time. However, there are too many instances to count when the media spends 24 hours a day covering events that turn out to be a fraction as bad as they are predicted to be. There is not a chance that there will be force evacuation of Florida. To even suggest this is ludicrous.

Anyone remember the Y2K impending doom when our electric grids and everything running on technology was going to stop functioning, thus sending our country into a downward spiral of anarchy?

Please reconsider posting something called Florida is doomed which is full of half-truths blown out of proportion to gain ratings versus the other television stations. The real damage is going to be caused by tourism being destroyed by spreading these "ratings-seeking" scare-tactics.

[Creek Hollow]

Originally Posted by stpeteguy

How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions - by Terrence Aym - Helium

W.O.W.

Multiple warnings weren't enough to prevent drilling in the exact location of the methane lake?

Do you really think "cost savings" were the real reason for ignoring said warnings?

[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by matchpoint

BP will not exist as a company in probably 4 months. The U.S. taxpayers are going to be on the hook to cleanup this mess.

If that truly does come to pass, it won't be because they don't have the financial fortress to take care of the problems, it'll be because of political pressure from the Obama administration.