Susan Q. Stranahan is a freelance journalist. For nearly 20 years she was a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she covered environment, business, and the courts. Her stories were a major component of The Inquirer's coverage of the Three Mile Island accident, which won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for general local reporting. Stranahan is the author of Susquehanna, River of Dreams, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, and has written for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Fortune, Mother Jones, and Time. In her article The Valdez Crud she answers the question whether crude oil and chemicals are to blame for the health problems of workers who cleaned up Exxon's mess. After an oil spill in 1989, 11,000 men and women put forth a major effort to clean up 10 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound. They worked 12 hour shifts for weeks as they cleaned up the shoreline. Included in the job description was picking up dead wildlife, scrubbing rocks, skimming oil off the water, and using high-pressure sprayers to treat oil-coated beaches with solvents. Workers soon complained of respiratory problems and flu-like symptoms, which became known as the Valdez Crud. Crude oil contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer, and the solvents used contain a compound called Inipol, which can cause rashes, respiratory ailments, and damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver. In one summer alone, workers made over 6,700 visits to Exxon-run clinics, for upper-respiratory infections. By the end of the year, more that 1,800 cleanup- crew members filed for workers' compensation, 264 of whom claimed respiratory ailments. For many workers health problems worsened over the years, Mike Potter for example complained of memory loss, chronic fatigue, and a high sensitivity to chemicals. He died of a heart attack at the age of 44.

The Valdez Crud indeed caused health problems for those who cleaned Exxon's oil spill in 1989. Cleanup-crew members having worked 12 hour days surrounded by toxic oil, with a container of Inipol strapped to their backs caused respiratory problems, memory loss, and other long term affects that in some cases resulted in death. Hazardous chemicals subjected to the workers anatomy resulted in thousands of visits to the hospital. One would think that with such a high rate of sicknesses Exxon would be more understanding. To the contrary, Exxon refused to give investigators access to its medical records, and workers were too scared to conduct extensive interviews. Exxon wipes their hands clean of the tragedy, claiming that they complied with all federal, state, and environmental requirements during the cleanup, which cost the company $2.2 billion. In attempt to avoid the press, Exxon has handled compensation privately with the workers who filed lawsuits, insisting secrecy in concealing even the most basic information about the cleanup workers. The Valdez Crud affected thousands, and as a company Exxon did everything possible to keep it a secret. I agree with the author's research, and am paraphrasing it to support my argument that oil spills cause health problems.

The cleanup-crew put much effort into cleaning the oil spill but soon realized that "Everybody was coming down with something... We'd be given cough medicine. We figured it wasn't a cold, but something to do with the oil." At first the workers may have felt that the sicknesses were spreading as if they were a cold or flu, but after research and clinical visits, they realized that the problems were coming from the oil and other hazardous chemicals. Large oil companies such as Exxon claim that everything is dandy when such catastrophes come to pass such as the oil spill in Alaska. Dr. William Rea of the Environmental Health Center in Dallas said "They didn't get protected properly... When I hear Exxon say there are no health effects, I say that's baloney." I love these two quotes because an actual worker says in his words that everyone was getting extremely sick, though Exxon claimed that wasn't the case. While a Doctor researches the problem, and states that the workers were not properly protected and that Exxon lies when they deny health effects. I feel that any effort put towards renewable energy would be a benefit to mankind and nature. Anything we do to prevent another spill will be a tremendous help.

 

Shaun Bluth 

Works Cited:

The Valdez Crud. Authors: Stranahan, Susan Q. Source: Mother Jones; Mar/Apr2003, Vol.28 Issue 2, p20, 3p, 1 color. Document Type: Article. Subject Terms: Petroleum, Chemicals, Employees, Health, Oil spills, Exxon Corp. Company/Entity: Exxon Corp. Full Text Word Count: 1189. ISSN: 03628841. Database: Academic Search Premier. Section: Outfront.