Oil Spill Fallout Hits Mother Nature

Hometown U.S.A.: Golden Meadow, La.

Saving the healing herbs of the bayou

Much of the land of the native Houma people is now underwater, and after the oil spill, one healer's great-grandson fears that the traditional plants once used to save the ill will soon be lost too.

By My-Thuan Tran, Los Angeles Times
September 4, 2010

Jason Pitre grew up hearing stories of how his great-grandfather healed babies on the cusp of death using herbs and plants found along Louisiana's bayous. The tribal healer, or traiteur, was known by the native Houma people for his potions and salves that seemed to treat any sickness.

Now, the traditional herbs are in danger, Pitre said, threatened by decades of coastal erosion, hurricanes and development that have crept up on Golden Meadow in Bayou Lafourche, where many members of the United Houma Nation once lived.

"A lot of the plants that my great-grandfather used and that my grandfather grew up with are no longer there," he said. "It's a matter of time before more and more of them disappear."

After BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and oil began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in April, Pitre worried a hurricane could push oil or dispersants into the wetlands where the plants grow.

So Pitre, 26, and his grandfather began uprooting herbs to replant them on higher ground. On a recent afternoon, Pitre pulled his SUV up to a small blue house in Golden Meadow — the home of his grandfather, Whitney Dardar, 74.

Dardar said that as a young boy, people came long distances and knocked on the door at all hours of the night to be treated by his late father. "My father would go into the woods and pick plants for every sickness," Dardar said.

Dardar stepped along the walkway lined with broken oyster shells and pointed out a row of plants — tall dark-green straws poking out from the ground. The Houma people, who once spoke a mix of French and Houma, call the plant prelle, Dardar said.

He plucked one of the straws and ripped it into sections. "You get an odd number of them, tie it with a thread, and boil it to make a strong tea," he said. "It's good for blood infections."

A few steps away grew a saw palmetto. The trunk and fruit of the plant, which looks like a miniature palm tree, were used to treat prostate problems, and the leaves could be used to weave baskets.

Surrounding the house were other plants his father used: a plantain tree, whose large leaves were crushed to make a salve to treat poison ivy, heat stroke and skin swelling. The leaves of the bon blanc plant were used to brew a minty tea for babies with colic. The leaves of the sage-like venera treated colds.

Dardar says he wishes he had learned more from his father, Ernest, who did not write instructions for his remedies, but passed them down through word of mouth.

When he was young, Dardar used to hunt and trap muskrat and mink on the land that stretched as far as he could see from his home.

Today, much of that land lies below sea level, due to costal erosion that has been sped up by oil and gas drilling and levee systems that restrict the Mississippi River. Pipeline canals cut into the marshes have brought in saltwater, killing vegetation.

Many families from the Houma tribe had no choice but to move inland. Today, the 17,000-member tribe is scattered across coastal Louisiana.

Some of the plants Dardar's father used are gone too from the surrounding bayous, Dardar said. Cat's foot, an herb with clusters of small white flowers used as a tea to cleanse the body, is nowhere to be found, he said.

And now, though the BP oil well has been capped, Dardar worries about how the remaining plants will fare with the toxins that may still be in the marshes.

So he led his grandson to the side of his house and handed him a gray plastic bucket. Inside were a few inches of water and a light green grass shrub — turkey grass. "It's good for kidney and liver trouble," Dardar said.

Pitre drove with the plant to his home in Raceland, about 30 more miles inland. A few weeks earlier, Pitre had tried to replant a root of a plant called black vine, but it didn't take. He's only seen a few black vines growing in the bayou.

In the front yard, he shoveled a hole and carefully placed the turkey grass, hopeful that that what had survived in the bayou for centuries would continue to grow.

my-thuan.tran@latimes.com

Natural Health News: Health Concerns for Gulf Coast Residents

UPDATE: 25 August 

New Study Documents Symptoms of Cleanup Workers in 2002 Spill Off Spanish Coast

A new study has found a higher incidence of respiratory problems and chromosomal changes to white blood cells among fishermen who helped clean up a 2002 oil spill off the Spanish coast, providing a guide to potential flashpoints that may arise as federal scientists begin studying the long-term health of responders to this summer's Gulf of Mexico gusher.

The exposed workers were examined two years after their contact with spilled oil, when "a greater proportion" of that group was found to still experience respiratory symptoms such as wheezing and nighttime shortness of breath, the study's authors wrote. Chromosomal abnormalities in white blood cells, considered a potential marker for heightened cancer risk, was also detected at higher rates in fishermen who regularly came in contact with oil during cleanup work.

UPDATE: 21 August 

Oil Enters Food Chain: The recent discovery of trace amounts of oil in blue crab larvae has left experts forecasting dire news for the Gulf ecosystem. It’s evidence that the oil from the spill loosed from the Deepwater Horizon explosion has already begun working its way up the food chain — where it could be fatal to animals who ingest it. Read more...

Newly Discovered Oil-Eating Microbe Flourishing in Gulf -

WASHINGTON (Aug. 24) -- A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Science / AAAS / AP

In this image provide by the journal Science, microbes degrade oil, indicated by the circle of dashes, in the deepwater plume from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as documented in a study by Berkeley Lab researchers.

And the microbe works without significantly depleting oxygen in the water, researchers led by Terry Hazen at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., reported Tuesday in the online journal Sciencexpress.

UPDATE: 3 August

Public Health - Many of you have written to us asking about the health effects of oil and dispersants to cleanup workers and communities. You can read about potential health hazards here: www.sciencecorps.org/crudeoilhazards.htm If you suspect you are ill from chemical exposure, you may contact detox specialists at The Environmental Health Center - Dallas. For other health resources, click here.

UPDATE FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS! - Dr. Michael Harbut has provided up-to-date information for physicians. Michael R. Harbut, M.D., M.P.H. is a Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at Wayne State University, Director of the Karmanos Cancer Institute's Environmental Cancer Program & Past Chair of the Occupational & Environmental Medicine section of the American College of Chest Physicians.  He is Chief at the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, P.C. and has treated many patients with solvents and petroleum exposures.  Click here to read Dr. Harbut's recommendations.

Natural Health News: Health Concerns for Gulf Coast Residents

What Are the Potential Physical Health Effects From the Gulf Oil Spill?

An Expert Interview With Vikas Kapil, DO, MPH, From the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/725593

Health Concerns for Gulf Coast Residents

6/24/10   More now on the oil spill and health

Photo by: David Rencher


5/26 UPDATE: Louisiana Shrimp Association has spill updates
Heat Stroke reported as a health risk to cleanup workers.  Heat Stoke can impact kidney function and cause other serious health problems.

Clint Guidry, of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, has accused BP of threatening to sack workers who turn up wearing respirators. The oil firm said it was not aware of any workers being turned away, but noted that it was the responsibility of the Obama administration to decide whether such protective gear was warranted.
EPA tests indicate that the combined effect of dispersants and crude oil are even more toxic than individually. "There are dispersants being applied by aeroplane and by boat, and these people on the water are being sprayed over and over again...read more

Original post -

With the issue of toxic exposure to the oil dispersant and oil from the explosion, it would be timely to consider the use of vitamin C, at least 3000 mg a day, and milk thistle to help keep your liver functioning in its important work of detoxification.

If you would like more information about proper detoxification please contact us. Anyone working on the clean-up will also benefit from this information.

OIL CLEAN UP OPTION

Prince William Sound 21 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster -
20,000 gallons of oil still remains along 20,000 miles of shoreline in Alaska.

Corexit was utilized.  More than 19 months after treatment the toxins still were evident in the area. 

Congenital heart disease was found in subsequent generations of animal life following the use of Corexit. 

In the Gulf, a major impact will be on Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna as well as other marine life (read more about shrimp, link above).

Energy Independence Revisited

What happened to railroad energy independence by 2000 as Carter pledged in '74?

Just more corrupt politics and greed...

The Gulf Oil Spill
Jerald L. Schnoor

At the time of this writing, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has continued unabated for one month. On April 20, 2010, the Mississippi Canyon 252 Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded, killing 11 people. The rig sank on April 22. Since then, we have witnessed a series of failed efforts to stop the oil discharge followed by a flurry of accusations and recriminations by BP, Transoceanic (the operator of the rig), Halliburton (the contractor employed to expedite the drilling operation), and the U.S. government. But none of these parties are fully responsible—our addiction to oil is really to blame.
When you are addicted, you will do anything necessary to satisfy your habit, even drilling in 5000 ft (1.5 km) of water to a depth of 5 mi (8 km) under the sea, jeopardizing the entire Gulf ecosystem. And when you are addicted to oil, it is difficult to imagine any other alternative. Somehow, we need a 12-step recovery program from the Obama administration.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about an oil spill for ES&T. As a young Associate Editor, I invited research articles following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, by visiting the cleanup operation and meeting with researchers on-site. We published some of the first technical papers explaining the fate, transport, and eco-effects of the oil, and the bioremediation of Alaskan beaches. By means of this editorial, I’m similarly issuing a call to Gulf researchers to consider submitting your scientific articles about the oil spill here. We pledge to peer-review them rapidly (and thoroughly) and publish them with high quality and high impact.
Every oil spill is different, and that’s what makes emergency preparedness so difficult. In the case of the Exxon Valdez spill, emergency response was handicapped by jurisdictional quandaries, and that has proven to be the case again. In Prince William Sound, 2000 mi (3200 km) of shoreline were contaminated, and the plume traveled up to 500 miles (800 km). The high energy tides (15 ft [4.6 m]) caused skimming and burning the oil spill to be difficult, and it drove oil deep into some beaches. Cold water in Alaska caused oil to biodegrade more slowly and caused fisheries to have lower rates of reproduction and slow recovery times.
The BP Gulf of Mexico spill is the first to emanate from 5000 ft beneath the sea. It is the first to make major use of dispersants at the source of the leak, and it is the first to result in a major submerged plume. The vast area potentially impacted by the spill is also unprecedented. Already it is 16,000 sq. mi. (41,400 km2) of sea surface covered by oil slick and 46,000 sq. mi. (119,000 km2) of area closed to fishing (roughly the size of Pennsylvania). Obviously, it’s imperative that the oil discharge be stopped and stopped soon before the spill contaminates the entire Gulf. But no one knows what the final economic and environmental burden will be. Larry Schweiger, President of the National Wildlife Federation, was quoted in an AP story, “The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene, and the perpetrator cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage.”
Assessing the damages is tricky and highly site-specific. If the Gulf oil spill continues to stay mostly at sea, it will affect more open-water fisheries and less shoreline habitats and spawning than previous massive spills. The use of dispersants could prove to be a brilliant decision that broke-up the spill and allowed biodegradation of billions of tiny droplets more easily. Or it could be a disaster that served to submerge the plume, spread it into the Loop Current, and transport it to the ecologically rich Florida Keys. When the plume is submerged, it is no longer subject to volatilization and photodegradation, important processes in the weathering of the oil, which could further delay recovery. When millions of gallons of dispersants are used, it is yet another toxicological stressor on ecosystems.
No energy source comes without risks and environmental impacts, but our addiction to oil is particularly vexing because of the energy insecurity it fosters. Our addiction is largely one of liquid transportation fuels for driving more and more miles each year. If we could solve our overdependence on cars and trucks, we would solve our addiction to oil.
Imagine a world without oil—and with efficient plug-in hybrid electric cars running on solar, wind, and geothermal power. We’d have less dependence on foreign oil, less greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, a better balance of payments, lower debt burden, a stronger dollar, a more resilient energy infrastructure, cleaner air, and less emphysema and asthma.
Years ago, I said, “The oil spill at Prince William Sound was caused by human error and was largely preventable. We hope to learn from these disasters so we do not have to relive them” (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es00013a600 [1991, 25 (1), 14]).
Just repeat the refrain. But add a real plan to end our oil addiction.
Environ. Sci. Technol., Publication Date (Web): May 27, 2010
Copyright © 2010 American Chemical Society