Ask BP to Increase Fund to Reduce Toxicity of Oil Spill Dispersants

Please sign and share this petition worldwide on all media sites in an effort to speak out to BP and ask them to increase funds to reduce the toxicity of oil spill dispersants. The current dispersants used to clean up oil spills is causing distress to the environment and water life. They need to develop better methods of cleaning up water spills that will not harm animals, humans and the environment.

One of the major dispersants in the cleanup of an oil spill can cause damage to the respiratory epithelial cells of humans and animals in a laboratory setting, according to studies at the UAB, but with better methods, it is possible to have lesser damage and safe results. These studies show that one dispersant known as Corexit 9500A did cause damage to a line of human epithelial cells as well as the lungs of mice and gills of blue crabs and zebrafish. The study found that Corexit increased the oxidation of those epithelial cells, decreasing their ability to form a protective barrier and increasing cell death or apoptosis.

A professor at UAB, Dr. Anthony states that "The evidence that Corexit causes structural and functional abnormalities in airway tissue includes dispersant-induced cell detachment, edema, contraction in cell diameter and increased permeability." Dr. Anthony works in the UAB's Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and senior author of the studies and paper.

When using the Corexit, some 48,000 workers that were involved in a 2010 oil spill cleanup were possibly affected and exposed to the dispersant via inhalation. Although some of the hazards of the dispersant Corexit have been identified, there is more concern for humans, the environment and water life. "Unfortunately, the likelihood of another oil spill is high, and the need to use dispersal agents will remain," Dr. Antony said. "We propose that upregulating HO-1 may offer a novel therapeutic approach for treating dispersant-induced injury and apoptosis by enhancing the antioxidant and anti-apoptotic ability of the epithelium."

Through the efforts of this petition, we are asking BP to increase their funds and find better methods of cleaning up oil spills that would not be toxic to human life, the environment and water life. You can help us to achieve our goals in this really crucial matter by signing and sharing this petition worldwide on all media sites. Water spills have a drastic effect on the lives within the waters affected already and using toxic methods of cleanup only adds to the tragedy.