Months after diving in Gulf of Mexico waters fouled by BP crude oil and the oil dispersant Corexit, a man in his 40s has more than five times the normal amount of ethylbenzene in his blood.
The bloodstream of a 3-year-old, exposed to the oil spill when his family visited the Gulf Coast, contains at least three times the normal level of the same organic hydrocarbon, which is toxic in certain quantities.
Such numbers, according to Wilma Subra, a New Iberia biochemist and environmental activist, are increasingly common in a region that continues to grapple with the consequences of the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
Bill Barros of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on a forum held in February at which Subra was the guest speaker.
NCR interviewed Wilma Subra last June as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill continued, threatening the livelihood of thousands in the Gulf and the wetland environment of the coast.
