![]() ![]() Most had livelihoods that depended on the Gulf. Others were Cajun construction workers and Black cowboys. Some were Vietnamese fishers put out of work when Gulf waters were closed to shrimping. They also rescued wildlife, including oiled birds, sea turtles and dolphins. On 20 April 2010, a rig contracted by the oil and gas company BP to drill in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico blew up, spewing more than 200m gallons of oil.Įleven workers were killed that day, but some argue the spill’s death toll could be far higher – and underreported – as cleanup workers soon started to develop illnesses they claim are linked to exposure to toxins in the oil as well as Corexit, the chemical that was used by BP to break up oil slicks.ĭuring the 87 days that oil gushed from the seafloor, lower-income workers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida picked up tar balls from beaches, sopped up oil with absorbent booms, decontaminated boats, and burned oil on the water surface. ![]() Samuel Castleberry prepares to take his medications at his home in Mobile, Alabama. “What resident and professional oil spill responders do is exactly what professional firefighters and emergency responders everywhere do: put their lives on the line to protect ours,” she said.īut while those who responded to the deadliest single terror attack in American history have been rightly cemented into public memory, coastal workers in some of the poorest parts of the country – those who laid their bodies on the line following the worst industrial catastrophe in a generation – have faded away, unrecognized and left to fight for themselves. The valor displayed by cleanup workers was comparable to the heroism of first responders during the 9/11 terror attacks, who ran to the World Trade Center to save people and breathed in toxic dust and fumes, said the Alaska toxicologist Riki Ott, who became involved in advocating for oil spill cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. Others, like Castleberry and Ruffin, have developed cancer. Since the cleanup, thousands have experienced chronic respiratory issues, rashes and diarrhea – a problem known among local residents as “BP syndrome” or “Gulf coast syndrome”. Photograph: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images Each wave brought a new batch of oil for workers to clean. Workers hired by BP rake up globs of oil that washed ashore and coated the beaches in 2010 near Port Fourchon and Grand Isle in southern Louisiana.
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