FDA Not Testing Gulf Seafood For Mercury, Arsenic or Other Heavy Metals Because

[ensho]

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/08/fda-not-testing-gulf-seafood-for.html


FDA Not Testing Gulf Seafood For Mercury, Arsenic or Other Heavy Metals Because "We do not expect to seen an increase based on this Spill"


Congressman Markey's subcomittee held a hearing Thursday on seafood and the oil spill.

Markey got the Food and Drug Administration to admit that fish are not being tested from oiled areas:

-snip videos and text-

But in the real world:

Crude oil contains such powerful cancer-causing chemicals as benzene, toluene, heavy metals and arsenic.

-long snip-

The FDA also admitted that it is not testing for the most toxic bioaccumulating metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
-----------------------

[Parker CA]

1. So the only conclusion one can make is that all the gulf seafood is perfectly fine to eat. nt.

[unhappycamper]

2. Or that neocons are still running the FDA. n/t

[Parker CA]

3. Yep.

[ensho]

4. bingo

nt

[flyarm]

16. yes that would be the neo cons in BOTH Parties! Both parties are up to their eyeballs in this shit!

[awoke_in_2003]

57. +1000. nt

[Axle_techie]

26. Um, the head of the FDA is an Obama appointee

Margaret A. Hamburg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_A._Hamburg

As is the person who runs the parent agency, department of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius






*Edited to add more information*

[Greyhound]

36. And?

[blindpig]

59. Indeed.

Really, what more can one say?

[awoke_in_2003]

56. regardless of the party in charge

big business runs our government.

[tavalon]

39. Funny, that's not my conclusion

[BeFree]

5. Psssst.

Don't tell anyone, but what do you think plastics are made from?

[BeFree]

15. New name for the Gulf?

Gulf de Plastico.

[Lorien]

19. Corexit isn't generally added to our plastics. nt

[Oilwellian]

28. And...

I had no idea people ingested plastic.

[tavalon]

40. With every sip from your BPA laden water bottle

Sorry to be a buzzkiller.

[Dorian Gray]

42. That's why

BPA free is all the rage these days.

[tavalon]

45. Yup, but it's so ubiquitous that it doesn't really matter

We've all had plenty and it's stored in our fat. That horse is out of the barn. Of course, looking around, it's pointless to rage about the increased cancer rates because there is just too much ambient crap, 98% of which we cooked up in our stupid simian brains.

[peacetalksforall]

60. I find your one sentence naysaying criticisms of us unforgiveable.

[ThomCat]

6. If they don't test for anything bad, they won't find it.

Then they can honestly say that according to their tests, the seafood is perfectly safe! Yay!

Don't you feel better already?

Don't your trust of bribed and corporate owned government agencies just increase every day?

[tavalon]

41. Bingo!

[AnArmyVeteran]

71. I drank a glass full of mercury because I couldn't smell anything bad.

The 'smell test' for seafood is a complete joke. A lot of toxic chemicals can be odorless. I'm tired of the government, in collusion with industry, tring to dupe the American people. I'm not eating any gulf products because they could be tainted with all kinds of toxic chemicals.

[indepat]

7. Perhaps government is best at spending trillions of dollars to keep us safe from foreign terraists,

but complicitous in killing us softly at home so mega corporations can operate with reckless abandon to maximize profits on which they largely do not pay US Federal income taxes. Now, someone please tell/show/convince me that ours is not a wholly-owned corporatist government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, all to the ruin of this Republic. :P

[Catherina]

8. US seafood went totally off my menu unless I know, for sure, where it was fished

not where it was packaged or the location of the headquarters of the company selling it, but where, geographically, it was fished.

What a sad day.

[peacetalksforall]

62. If it's FDA ruled, we can't even trust the data on the package. As far as I'm

concerned, I will eat no shrimp from anywhere and I won't eat out if the restaurant tells me they use fish in anything - like sauces.

This has to get straightened out. I am blown away with the irresponsibility of this.

PS Markey. He seems to be the steady hero of the people.

[mike r]

9. FDA org chart:

Hey, if you don't test for it, it doesn't exist.

[Poboy]

11. funny. -nt

[global1]

10. All They Should Serve In The Senate And House Members Private Restaurants On Capitol Hill Is.......

seafood from the Gulf. Really - everyday - there shouldn't be anything else on the menu at these private dining rooms on Capitol Hill - but Gulf fished seafood. Let's see if our elected officials will eat it.

[Axle_techie]

27. +1 That's an awesome idea

[Odin2005]

12. FDA = F*cking Useless!

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Same way they tested the air at Ground zero.

Why is anyone surprised?

[flyarm]

17. ahhh yes glad you brought that Up...see here..

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

.....remember Dashle who was one of the leaders of Team Obama during our primaries..and was one of his top advisors...........working with Whitman..the lady who lied about the air quality at Ground zero in NY?? Can I tickle your memory..she lied and people died and keep dying!! And that is just one example..so now we know the Lady of Ground Zero's death squad the EPA..has so much in common with Tom Daschle the former Democratic party's senate leader and top advisor to Obama..and the New Head of the CIA under Obama..are in bed together..strange bedfellows... what the hey............

Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298

[ensho]

65. kick

nt

[flyarm]

14. Go ahead pregnant women go ahead and eat fish from the Gulf..

this administration and this government of ours told you it's safe!! They told you to eat the fish and swim in the water..

Oh and those of us on the Gulf who told you it's not safe..don't worry, the government has sent people all over the internet to shut us up!! And has paid off scientists..and lawyers up and down the Gulf coasts.

Thankfully some of the Great Scientists and their Universities have too much integrity, and some great fishermen have too much integrity..and many of us posting on the internet have too much integrity..some people can not be bought..

Oh and parents with children..do make sure your children do not eat fish or shellfish out of the Gulf..if you want your child to grow up cancer free, and with no brain damage or organ damage in their futures!

And for those who have sold their fellow Americans out..pregnant women, and children and the elderly..fuck you..you are a disgrace and dispicable may you have a pox on your home!

Take your pennies to the dollar and fuck yourself with it!

I know I know..that is pretty strong..but even here I have been called ( in a way to not break the precious rules) a liar..and have been harraased..and nothing is ever done to the Harrassers!

I guess I care too much about the Children..and the mommies to be, and their newborns...its the grandma in me!

Anyone who allows the liars to lie..take a good look at your child and think what you will do to someone else's child by trying to shut up the truth tellers! Because it will be on your hands..and your soul!

We on the Gulf will not eat what is being brought out of the Gulf..we won't swim in the Gulf..and I will no longer walk on the water line of the Gulf..I don't want any of that dispersant water to touch my skin! It's bad enough we have had to breathe it, and stil do with the evaporation of it in our air!

[Lorien]

18. Yep. I'm 50 miles from it yet my eyes, noses and throat have not stopped burning

for nearly three months now. Every time it rains (like now) my fibromyaligia symptoms get much worse. What they aren't telling us is probably even worse than what we imagine.

[juajen]

34. Where do you live, Lorien? NT

[Lorien]

76. Orlando. nt

[SoCalDem]

20. translation:

We're not testing, because if we did, you would too scared to buy the seafood:(

[flyarm]

22. self delete

[DCBob]

21. Gulf seafood is being tested more now than any other seafood in the country...

You are more likely to be poisoned from non-Gulf seafood. Enjoy!

[flyarm]

24. Study: Gulf oil spill still a threat to seafood safety

Study: Gulf oil spill still a threat to seafood safety
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/16/v-fullstory/1778984/study-gulf-spill-still-a-seafood.html#ixzz0wyB2arX8

BY FRED TASKER
[e-mail]

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill still poses threats to human health and seafood safety, according to a study published Monday by the
* peer-reviewed * Journal of the American Medical Association.

The report comes two days after President Obama and members of his family swam in the Gulf at Panama City Beach and ate fish caught there, and hours after this year's commercial shrimping season officially kicked off along the Louisiana coast..


snip:

In the short term, study co-author Gina Solomon voiced greatest concern for shrimp, oysters, crabs and other invertebrates she says are have difficulty clearing their systems of dangerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) similar to those found in cigarette smoke and soot. Solomon is an MD and public health expert in the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

In the longer term, she expressed worries about big fin fish such as tuna, swordfish and mackerel, saying levels of mercury from the oil might slowly increase over time by being consumed by fish lower in the food chain and becoming concentrating in the larger fish..


As time goes on, she said, doctors may be warning pregnant women and children to strictly limit the amount of such fish they eat. Some of the fish had relatively high levels of mercury even before the oil spill, she said.

read the rest!

[flyarm]

25. Fishermen find oil and dispersants on Mississippi shrimping and oyster grounds

Fishermen find oil and dispersants on Mississippi shrimping and oyster grounds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxAUGiIXMwU&feature=player_embedded

[thereismore]

67. I am sure it's gone now. These are not the droids you're looking for. nt

[Dr.Phool]

29. Which comic book did that information come from?

They're telling people to fucking sniff it.

Well, I guess that is a test.

[flyarm]

30. it's amazing the disinformation and the out right lies that are being promoted isn't it?

see this thread..and check out my links!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8994244&mesg_id=8994244

:hi: :hi:

But what do those of us who live on the Gulf know.. anyway?????????:hug: :fistbump: B-)

[DCBob]

43. NOAA testing lab supervisor: "Seafood has never gotten this kind of attention anywhere in history,"

"Seafood has never gotten this kind of attention anywhere in history," said Walt Dickhoff, who oversees chemical testing for NOAA at the agency's Seattle seafood testing lab. "So I'm quite confident it's safe."

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/convincing_public_that_gulf_of.html

[Dr.Phool]

44. "The air in Manhatten at Ground Zero is perfectly safe to breath".

This ad presented by the Bubba Gump Shrimp and Chemical Company.

[DCBob]

47. People like you will never be satisfied no matter how much testing and analyzing was done.

ciao.

[Dr.Phool]

49. No, I've been lied to so many times by politicians and corporations.

I've come to take a lot of what they say with a healthy dose of skepticism.

NOAA had a lot of scientific integrity before this, but blew it when they started downplaying the numbers on the spill. And it was political pressure doing it.

[flyarm]

50. People like what? you mean People like NOAA that have lied to us and paid off scientists?

and LIke NOAA that put out a false report about the Oil and had to recind it after being questioned under Oath By Cong Markey..that their so called report was nothing but a big pile of horsehit..because it was never peer reviewed which is PROTOCOL for any such kind of report?? You mean like that???????

or How about the NOAA that was trying to BUY up as many scientists along the gulf..and lawyers along with BP/? that NOAA are you speaking of..

they are telling us what???? the seafood is being tested..

Well with friends like NOAA protecting us..I think there is agoint ot be a massive out break of all kinds of cancers on the Gulf..and now they want to spread it to you and the nation!! How lovely..that just tickles my heart!! NOT!

wake the fuck up!

I never thought I would see such a massive sell out of American people, by people who supposedly call themselves democrats!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


NOAA Tried to Silence Reports of Undersea Oil Plumes | Mother Jones

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/noaa-tried-h ...

NOAA Tried to Silence Reports of Undersea Oil Plumes

— By Kate Sheppard

| Tue Aug. 10, 2010 8:04 AM PDT
SNIP: In the St. Petersburg Times, Craig Pittman has this scathing report on how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration attempted to silence scientists who discovered the vast undersea plumes of dispersed oil in the Gulf:

A month after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, scientists from the University of South Florida made a startling announcement. They had found signs that the oil spewing from the well had formed a 6-mile-wide plume snaking along in the deepest recesses of the gulf.
The reaction that USF announcement received from the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agencies that sponsored their research: Shut up.
"I got lambasted by the Coast Guard and NOAA when we said there was undersea oil," USF marine sciences dean William Hogarth said. Some officials even told him to retract USF's public announcement, he said, comparing it to being "beat up" by federal officials.
It gets worse; NOAA's top brass confirmed that they tried to keep the reports quiet:

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, in comments she made to reporters in May, expressed strong skepticism about the existence of undersea oil plumes - as did BP's then-CEO, Tony Hayward.
"She basically called us inept idiots," Asper said. "We took that very personally."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

NOAA scientist Bill Lehr testified on Thursday August 19th. Testified under oath that the original NOAA report was false.

NOAA’s Bill Lehr says three-quarters of the oil that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon rig is still in the Gulf environment while scientists identify 22-mile plume in ocean depths

BP oil spill: US scientist retracts assurances

http://www.cwwa2009.com/climate-change/noaas-bill-lehr-...



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

BP's efforts to "buy up" scientists in Gulf states
Chris Kromm: Blacklash Grows Against BP Efforts to "Buy Up" Gulf ...Jul 30, 2010 ... BP's efforts to "buy up" scientists in Gulf states was first revealed by ... BP attempted to hire the entire Marine Science Department at the University .... http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/07/whats-for-dinn ... ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../blacklash-grows-against-b_b_... - Cached

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/bp-and-noaa-buy-s ... /

BP and NOAA buy scientific silence

By Ben Raines
Press-Register

BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast with contracts that ban them from publishing their research. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is offering a similarly restrictive contract according to scientists, refusing to provide the media with a copy of its contract, reports Ben Raines.

For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast to aid its defense against spill litigation. BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company’s lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.

The Press-Register obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.


go ahead google it up yourself...I dare you........google this up.......

"BP buys up scientists in the Gulf of Mexico"


...........................................................


Government to Oil Plume Discovery Team: Shut Up | The Seminal

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/48816#

Government to Oil Plume Discovery Team: Shut Up
By: Jim White Tuesday May 18, 2010 6:06 am


The research vessel Pelican. (photo: Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium)

On Saturday, the New York Times brought the world’s attention to the discovery by a team of researchers on the the vessel Pelican that there are large underwater plumes of oil emanating from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Remarkably, the response of the government to the attention focused on this discovery has been to tell the researchers to stop granting interviews with the press. At the same time, the blog on which the researchers had been providing updates has also fallen silent since Saturday.

Pensacola television station WEAR filed a report (video at the link) on the oil plume and broke the news about the scientists being muzzled by the government:

Over the weekend, a research crew from the University of Southern Mississippi found evidence that there are 3 to 5 plumes… About 5 miles wide, 10 miles long and 3 hundred feet in depth.

But after giving that information to the press, the lead researcher now says he has been asked by the federal government… Which funds his research… To quit giving interviews until further testing is done.

What an interesting change of course for the government. Even the government’s website on the Deepwater Horizon response had been touting the mission of the Pelican as recently as May 6:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


would the American Medical Assoc lie to us ?????????????


Study: Gulf oil spill still a threat to seafood safety
Study: Gulf oil spill still a threat to seafood safety


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/16/v-fullstory/17789...

BY FRED TASKER
[e-mail]

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill still poses threats to human health and seafood safety, according to a study published Monday by the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association.

The report comes two days after President Obama and members of his family swam in the Gulf at Panama City Beach and ate fish caught there, and hours after this year's commercial shrimping season officially kicked off along the Louisiana coast.

Federal officials disputed the new report and said ongoing testing is aggressive and sufficient to protect public health.

In the short term, study co-author Gina Solomon voiced greatest concern for shrimp, oysters, crabs and other invertebrates she says are have difficulty clearing their systems of dangerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) similar to those found in cigarette smoke and soot. Solomon is an MD and public health expert in the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

In the longer term, she expressed worries about big fin fish such as tuna, swordfish and mackerel, saying levels of mercury from the oil might slowly increase over time by being consumed by fish lower in the food chain and becoming concentrating in the larger fish.

As time goes on, she said, doctors may be warning pregnant women and children to strictly limit the amount of such fish they eat. Some of the fish had relatively high levels of mercury even before the oil spill, she said.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

74. People like you.

NOAA has neither lied to anybody, nor paid off scientists.

NOAA never claimed that the oil disappeared entirely, but that the large oil slicks have been dispersed.

The report was reviewed by its peers, hence peer reviewed. It did not go through the same process that journal articles go through, but it did not need to. It was a press report, not a journal article.

Now there's certainly the medai trying to start a controversy, like the "climategate" nontroversy. They are hyping a non-existant contradiction between what NOAA's saying and other scientists are saying. And then there are the conspiracy minded internet warriors who fall for the nontroversy, just the sort of people Rahm and Gibbs are talking about.

[awoke_in_2003]

58. and people like you...

can always be counted on to be the cheerleaders of those in power.

[flyarm]

54. what the big boys in DC don't want you to know>>>>>>>>>>>>>

what the big boys in DC don't want you to know>>>>>>>>>>>>>

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

.....remember Daschle?? who was one of the leaders of Team Obama during our primaries..and was one of his top advisors...........now we see Dashle was working with BP and Whitman..the lady who lied about the air quality at Ground zero in NY?? Can I tickle your memory..she lied and people died and keep dying!! And that is just one example..so now we know the Lady of Ground Zero's death squad the EPA..has so much in common with Tom Daschle the former Democratic party's senate leader and top advisor to Obama..and the New Head of the CIA under Obama..are in bed together..strange bedfellows... what the hey............

Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298

[flyarm]

51. You mean this lying NOAA???????????????

August 19th:
Senior U.S. scientist rescinds previous claim that 3/4 of oil from spill is gone, says most is still there

"A senior U.S. government scientist on Thursday admitted that three-quarters of the oil that was released into the Gulf of Mexico after BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill was still there, contradicting his earlier claim that the worst of the spill had passed, the Guardian reported."

"Bill Lehr, senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), presented a radically different picture than the one the White House had presented to the public earlier this month. He contradicted his own reports from two weeks ago that suggested that the majority of the oil had been captured or broken down. “I would say most of that is still in the environment,” Lehr told the House energy and commerce committee."

http://wireupdate.com/wires/8833/senior-u-s-scientist-r ... /

August 19th:

WASHINGTON – A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill.
The most worrisome part is the slow pace at which the oil is breaking down in the cold, 40-degree water, making it a long-lasting but unseen threat to vulnerable marine life, experts said.
Earlier this month, top federal officials declared the oil in the spill was mostly "gone," and it is gone in the sense you can't see it. But the chemical ingredients of the oil persist more than a half-mile beneath the surface, researchers found.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_sc/us_sci_gul ...




......................................................

and BP paying off scientists????????


Chris Kromm: Blacklash Grows Against BP Efforts to "Buy Up" Gulf scientists

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kromm/blacklash-gro...

BP's efforts to "buy up" scientists in Gulf states was first revealed by Ben Raines of the Mobile Press-Register, who found that "BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists" at coastal public universities, mostly to help the company fend off a slew of post-spill lawsuits.


In one shocking example, BP attempted to hire the entire Marine Science Department at the University of Alabama -- an offer they declined due to a host of restrictions the oil company wanted to place on the school's research.


What kind of restrictions? In a copy of the BP contract obtained by Raines, contracted scientists are forbidden from "publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years" (unless, presumably, it looks good on a BP video).


But the lure of $250-an-hour contracting fees proved too tempting for scientists at Louisiana State University, University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M, where BP contracts have reportedly been accepted.


In a follow-up dispatch, Inside Higher Ed confirmed that while Southern Miss. had "ruled out" a campus-wide commitment -- "we don't want to become the University of BP," said one official -- three of the school's researchers had been approved to do work for the energy giant.


..............................................

BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community

Published: Friday, July 16, 2010, 5:00 AM

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/bp_buys_up_gulf_scienti...

Ben Raines, Press-Register

"We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn't be hearing from them again after that," said Bob Shipp, head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama. "We didn't like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion."

BP officials declined to answer the newspaper's questions about the matter. Among the questions: how many scientists and universities have been approached, how many are under contract, how much will they be paid, and why the company imposed confidentiality restrictions on scientific data gathered on its behalf.

Shipp said he can't prohibit scientists in his department from signing on with BP because, like most universities, the staff is allowed to do outside consultation for up to eight hours a week.

More than one scientist interviewed by the Press-Register described being offered $250 an hour through BP lawyers. At eight hours a week, that amounts to $104,000 a year.


..........................................................

USF says government tried to squelch their oil plume findings - St. Petersburg Times

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/article1114225...

USF says government tried to squelch their oil plume findings

By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, August 10, 2010



A month after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, scientists from the University of South Florida made a startling announcement. They had found signs that the oil spewing from the well had formed a 6-mile-wide plume snaking along in the deepest recesses of the gulf.

The reaction that USF announcement received from the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agencies that sponsored their research:

Shut up.

"I got lambasted by the Coast Guard and NOAA when we said there was undersea oil," USF marine sciences dean William Hogarth said. Some officials even told him to retract USF's public announcement, he said, comparing it to being "beat up" by federal officials.

The USF scientists weren't alone. Vernon Asper, an oceanographer at the University of Southern Mississippi, was part of a similar effort that met with a similar reaction. "We expected that NOAA would be pleased because we found something very, very interesting," Asper said. "NOAA instead responded by trying to discredit us. It was just a shock to us."

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, in comments she made to reporters in May, expressed strong skepticism about the existence of undersea oil plumes — as did BP's then-CEO, Tony Hayward.

"She basically called us inept idiots," Asper said. "We took that very personally."

[flyarm]

52. OR THIS NOAA???

Government :Lehr testified that the report hadn't yet been peer-reviewed

Edited on Fri Aug-20-10 11:40 AM by flyarm
http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?artic ...


3rd UPDATE: Rep. Markey: Oil Spill Report Gives 'False Confidence'

Markey's comments represent an unusual break with the administration by one of its closest allies in Congress on environmental issues. They came at a hearing where Bill Lehr, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sought to explain the government's findings that only a quarter of the oil remained.



Lehr testified that the report hadn't yet been peer-reviewed because "our priority was to get an answer as quickly as possible to incident command." He expressed frustration with Markey, saying that a peer review had been "delayed by a week because I'm having to come here. We're hoping to get it out in two months."

"That's not timely enough, doctor," replied Markey. "That's the problem, that's what we're trying to get at right here."

At a White House news conference earlier this month, Obama's top adviser on energy issues, Carol Browner, said the report had "been subjected to a scientific protocol, which means you peer review, peer review and peer review.".

On Thursday, administration officials pointed out that the NOAA report lists 11 "independent scientists" whom it said "were consulted on the oil budget calculations, contributed field data, suggested formulas, analysis methods or reviewed the algorithms used" to calculate the amount of oil that had been cleaned up or broken down.



Read that again..the Government is hoping to get a real report in TWO MONTHS!!!!..and by real report i mean one what has gone under the correct protocol for such a report..PEER REVIEWED

so a certain group of people here at Du have said repeatedly that the Governments report had been.. peer reviewed.. when indeed it had not! And still has not! The government's real report with facts and fact checked with a peer review... will not be available for at least 2 months!

[Spheric]

69. So who exactly is doing all this testing and where are their results?

This doesn't even pass the "smell test" which is what the FDA is apparently using according to your own link. So, the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board got some industry/government hack in Seattle to lie for them. So what? Until the evidence and data is provided and reviewed, this is nothing more than propaganda. Especially since all other evidence (which is copious at this point - including testimony to congress by the FDA to the contrary that was not in their own best interest) except this one guy's unsupported assertion indicates otherwise.

You can continue to try and sell this drivel, but I doubt you'll have much luck. People aren't quite as stupid as our leaders and their operatives apparently think we are.

IMHO

[peacetalksforall]

72. Sniff your fish! Equivalent to duct taping our windows?

[PufPuf23]

38. Heavy metals accumulate up the food chain

this is a given in Bio 1 for Dummies

What the fuck is the matter with you?

[Desertrose]

23. WHAT?

OMG.

This is all so wrong on more levels than I can count.

[defendandprotect]

31. Is there any fish safe to eat you can be sure doesn't come from Gulf waters? Tuna???

[flyarm]

32. Yellow fin Tuna and Bluefin Tuna both come out of the Gulf..

but there is Tuna that comes out of the Atlantic Ocean..

I don't know how you can say or trust where your fish is coming from..a ton of Grouper comes from the Gulf..shrimp..oysters...red fish..lots of fish....biggest shrimp fleets in the USA are in the Gulf.

[defendandprotect]

77. I'm a VEGAN and don't eat fish . . ..

but occasionally buy some tuna for my husband who does eat fish --

especially in restaurants.

Every once in a while I need the convenience of being able to make it

"sandwich" night -- but I don't think I can do that anymore now!!

Enough problems with my own feelings about buying it to begin with --

and the mercury in it -- best not to buy it at all.

PLUS, who knows how this will eventually be effecting even Atlantic Ocean fish!!???


PS: Thanks for taking the time to reply!!

:)

[Mimosa]

33. Seafoods must be tested. No ifs, ands or buts.

I know i won't be eating seafood from which I don't know the source and know it's safe. Guess i'll be eating lots of farmed North Sea salmon in the future.

[earth mom]

35. They really must think we are all dumb as rocks & not paying attention to the b.s. they are pulling!

:grr:

[Greyhound]

37. They do and we're not.

Love you avatar, mom.

Peace.

[quaker bill]

46. "we do not expect to see an increase"

The point being that some level of mercury and arsenic are already found, and have been for some time. Not just in the gulf, but pretty much everywhere.

Mercury contamination in fish is common in fresh water and salt water species throughout Florida, which is why there are consumption advisories on most game species. It is recognized as largely a product of coal burning power plants. That they do not expect to see an increase is not surprising. The volume of oil spilled from this well seems large, but the Gulf of Mexico is vastly larger.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

48. FDA's Guide for Gulf Seafood Testing:

Item 1: Locate sandy beach

Item 2: Procure shovel

Item 3: At low tide, locate area near water's edge. Proceed to dig.

Item 4: When the hole reaches 1 meter by 0.5 meters, with a depth of .05 meters, halt digging activities

Item 5: Insert head into newly created hole in the sand.

Item 6: Declare seafood safe to eat.


Repeat as necessary.

[Romulox]

53. Is BP in charge of testing the seafood, too? nt

[aquart]

55. Does the Senate have a dining room?

If so, I would like to see Gulf Shrimp on the menu.

[valerief]

61. Because they don't have to. That's why they won't. nt

[Duval]

63. Dammit! Until they do, gulf

seafood will not be served in this household. I have already gone through a "detox" program to eliminate mercury, about three years ago. This is outrageous!:mad: :crazy:

[lonestarnot]

64. K & R.

[Spheric]

66. K&R We are ruled by insanity. /nt

[Kablooie]

68. I sympathize with the seafood industry but putting their interests over the public's is wrong.

Once again the almighty dollar is more important than the welfare of the people.

[Spheric]

70. I am incredibly proud of the fishermen who decided not to fish until there is more data available...

to prove that it is safe. They are true American Heroes in my book.

I don't think the powers in the government/big oil cartel expected that. They probably think everyone is as evil and greedy as they are.

[laughingliberal]

73. Agree 100%. nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

75. OP, the ocean contains background levels of mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals.

By what measurable percentage would you expect those background levels to increase due to this spill?