Government Accountability Project

Protecting Corporate, Government & International Whistleblowers since 1977

GAP Report Shows Devastating Impact of Corexit Dispersant Used in Gulf "Cleanup": Daily Whistleblower News

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Newsweek: What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill399px-USCGC_Zephyr_searches_for_Deepwater_Horizon_explosion_survivors
Capping a 20-month investigation into the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, today GAP released groundbreaking findings in a report aimed at revealing the truth about the oil company and federal government’s dangerous “cleanup” solution. In response to the staggering truths revealed in our report, Newsweek has published an explosive article, “What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill.” The article, as does GAP’s report, shines a needed spotlight on the oil-spill dispersant Corexit utilized during the disaster, which made the resulting oil-Corexit mixture “52 times more toxic” than oil alone. The article reveals the extensive cover-up that ensued and exposes the incredible power wielded by giant corporations in society and “how unable, or unwilling, governments are to limit that power.”

The GAP report, Deadly Dispersants in the Gulf: Are Public Health and Environmental Tragedies the New Norm for Oil Spill Cleanups?, combines years of research, extensive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and dozens of interviews with whistleblowers who experienced the tragedies of the spill and its blundered aftermath firsthand. GAP interviewees include cleanup workers, doctors, industry leaders, federally-contracted divers, government officials and Gulf residents. Just a few of the findings include:

• Many cleanup workers and Gulf residents experienced serious health problems, coined “BP Syndrome,” that exhibits symptoms such as blood in urine, kidney damage, liver damage, memory loss and temporary paralysis, among many other serious afflictions.

• BP’s failure to protect its own workers, ordering them not to wear protective gear for public relations purposes, and wrongfully assuring them of their safety working in highly toxic environments.

• Ecological problems and food safety issues, including major concerns over seafood deformities and a massive decrease in reported catch from fishermen.

• BP’s massive faults in employee compensation, denying every single health claim brought by employees to its Gulf Coast Claims Fund.

An Executive Summary of the report can be found here.
The Full Report is accessible here.


Key Quote: But BP had a problem: it had lied about how safe Corexit is, and proof of its dishonesty would eventually fall into the hands of the Government Accountability Project, the premiere whistleblower-protection group in the U.S. The proof? A technical manual BP had received from NALCO, the firm that supplied the Corexit that BP used in the gulf.

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“[BP] opened the meeting with this upbeat presentation about how seriously they took their responsibilities for the spill and all the wonderful things they were doing to make things right,” says [GAP Legal Director Tom] Devine. “When it was my turn to speak, I said that the manual our whistleblower had provided contradicted what they just said. I asked whether they had ordered the manual withdrawn from work sites. Their attorneys said that was a matter they would not discuss because of the pending litigation on the spill.”



Huffington Post: House Passes Cybersecurity Bill to Let Companies Break Privacy Contracts

In a move that poses great risk to the security of American citizens’ personal information, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) yesterday. The bill allows giant corporations (banks, telecommunications companies) to share private information with one another and the US government, including the NSA and the CIA, under the guise of national cyber-security. The bill – which passed despite over 400,000 signatures petitioning against it – voids customers’ previously held privacy contracts with these corporations.

GAP Executive and International Director Bea Edwards has written extensively on the threat to privacy posed by this dangerous legislation.

Related Articles: Guardian, ABCNews


Secretary General Announces Review of Whistleblower Protections at the United Nations

In the wake of a press conference earlier this month, which featured GAP International Officer Shelley Walden speaking along with UN whistleblower James Wasserstrom, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced that the multilateral organization will review its policy on whistleblower protection. Walden explains the implications of the statement and encourages additional steps toward implementation in this blog post. 


Key Quote: “GAP is encouraged by the Secretary General’s announcement, but notes that significant obstacles to its effective implementation remain. In selecting the appropriate consultants, the United Nations must choose qualified people with expertise in whistleblower protection.”


Village Voice: War on Whistleblowers Enunciates the Nation’s Servility to Corporate Fat Cats

This recent review of War on Whistleblowers, the new documentary that tells the stories of four national security whistleblowers (including two GAP clients), focuses on the film's unsettling ability to reveal the US government’s submission to large corporate interests. Businessman and politicians are seen as of the same ‘ruthless and callous breed’ when it comes to being exposed for wrongdoing.

Jack Davis is Communications Associate for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

 

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