Louisiana doctor suspects patients' ill health caused by spill

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Posted: Tuesday, 22 March 2011 8:13AM

Louisiana doctor suspects patients' ill health caused by spill

Chris Miller Reporting

Blindness, nosebleeds, bleeding ears, memory loss. Is this what's happening to people exposed to leaking radiation in Japan? No, it's the symptoms a Louisiana doctor says his patients are dealing with more and more since the BP oil spill.

Dr. Mike Robichaux, an ear, nose and throat specialist and a former state senator, has shared his information with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. LEAN director Marylee Ott says it's compelling.

"We are gathering evidence that I don't believe you can dismiss," Ott told members of the news media. "You may wonder about it, but you're going to find that all these folks have very high levels of the ten chemicals that we're testing for."

Dr. Robichaux says chemicals found in oil dispersants can have nasty effects on the human body.

"Ethylene glycol is antifreeze. Methanol is wood alcohol," Dr. Robichaux said. "10 ccs blinds you, 30 ccs kills you."

Dr. Robichaux says one spill cleanup worker lost his sight, and other patients have had trouble with their memory.

"People out here are losing their memories. They're having headaches and losing their memory," he said. "This is happening to hundreds and hundreds of people."
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http://www.wwl.com/Louisiana-doctor-suspects-patients--ill-health-cau/9451513

 

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Re: Louisiana doctor suspects patients' ill health caused by spill

Mystery illnesses plague Louisiana oil spill crews

By Kerry Sheridan (AFP) ? 18 hours ago

RACELAND, Louisiana ? Jamie Simon worked on a barge in the oily waters for six months following the BP spill last year, cooking for the cleanup workers, washing their clothes and tidying up after them.

One year later, the 32-year-old said she still suffers from a range of debilitating health problems, including racing heartbeat, vomiting, dizziness, ear infections, swollen throat, poor sight in one eye and memory loss.

She blames toxic elements in the crude oil and the dispersants sprayed to dissolve it after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010.

"I was exposed to those chemicals, which I questioned, and they told me it was just as safe as Dawn dishwashing liquid and there was nothing for me to worry about," she said of the BP bosses at the job site.

The local doctor, Mike Robichaux, said he has seen as many as 60 patients like Simon in recent weeks, as this small southern town of 10,000 bordered by swamp land and sugar cane fields grapples with a mysterious sickness that some believe is all BP's fault.
...

Robichaux, an ear, nose and throat specialist whose office an hour's drive southwest of New Orleans is nestled on a roadside marked with handwritten signs advertising turtle meat for sale, says he is treating many of the local patients in their homes.

"Their work ethic is so strong, they are so stoic, they don't want people to know when they're sick," he said.

"Ninety percent of them are getting worse... Nobody has a clue as to what it is."


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