Pensacola beach opens against federal advice; 400 people sick

Originally posted by justadood
reply to post by tooo many pills

 

your partisan badge is showing.

this is SO much bigger than blaming the Republicans or Democrats. it's pitiful that you continue to make this about petty politics.

You owe that person an apology.

Obama has made at least the two speeches I've seen using the Spill to push Cap and Trade. Gore really will become an overnight billionaire when it passes. Those things are true. Even they don't deny it. Gores company is public record and the estimates of it potential value are coming from good sources. You should complain to them about making it political.

I'm not even a Republican and I see right through it. The spill has nothing to do with Cap and Trade, unless you listen to Obama, because he clearly says it does.

Show your disgust, vote third party next time.

reply to post by westcoast


I appreciated your input re the hazmat training. It is highly informative.

I have a mental picture of people standing on the shore with toothpicks in hand, ready to do battle against an enemy with a sword. This oil leak is one mother-of-all-hazmat incidences. It seems to me it is not merely millions of one gallon spills, and we can't treat it like that.

reply to post by westcoast


I also appreciate your answer in this post. It's an example of humanity at a higher level. I like that.

reply to post by getreadyalready


You've got to be kidding me! Is your memory that short or are you wearing rose colored glasses? Think back nearly ten years ago. The site of the world trade center after the buildings magically came down on their own footprints. Do you remember the head of the EPA saying there was nothing to worry about regarding the air quality and all those firemen and other rescue workers with no masks doing all that work clearing the rubble looking for survivors? Do you know where they are now? If they're not six feet under yet, they're sick as hell and will be soon. Those "experts" are morons. The EPA came through and found that three hazardous chemicals including Benzine are at least a thousand times above their "safe" levels along the shores. This oil has 40 times the normal amount of methane in it and methane carries with it these other chemicals. If you have always imagined you'd enjoy a death proceeded by a very painful bout off lung cancer, then by all means, listen to those "experts".

Originally posted by dead shrimp blues
I live in a small isolated community on Perdido Bay. This morning I let the cat out, the chemical smell was terrible. I felt it go to the bottom of my right lung. Coughed for a while.
I have tried talking to our local volunteer firefighters, they act like nothing is wrong. These guys have known 4 generations of my family and yet they will say nothing.
I am so afraid. I have faced hurricanes with trepidation but not fear. I can't sleep well even with medications.
It's so quite, no planes flying except the ones spraying corexit. No sound of boat motors.
I am seriously thinking about buying some H to keep on hand just in case we are forced by the military into camps. Just kill myself and get it overwith. My home is all I have I have no where to go. I have no money and am to old to pick up and leave to try to start over again.
God help us all.

I have not seen a more to the point post on this entire forum in quite a while (if ever). What the rest of you might consider is this man is quite the norm. The residents of the affected areas are sickened, heartsick, helpless, afraid, and unable to re-locate. They're going to die if they don't get away from the poison fumes. Writing about it won't help. It's time to take action...

Originally posted by silent thunder

I don't know what's sadder...the fact that the beach opened despite the risk or the fact that people actually showed up to go swimming.

[edit on 6/27/10 by silent thunder]

Reminds me of Jaws.

People tend to ignore huge risks until it happens to them. Whoever is in charge of the beach, just cared for the demand of swimmers. It makes the beach look good that people can swim....until the sickness/deaths of course.

Saw on the local news in Pensacola this morning an interview with a health department official. She stated that they based their beach-closing decisions on what they were told by island officials, who based their decision on what was observed in the water at a given geographical location.

The newscaster then recapped, stating that the decisions to open or close the beaches are based on what Buck Lee and other Island officials see in the water (sounded a bit sarcastic to me). She further stated that water samples have been taken by researchers at University of West Florida for toxicology studies, but findings have not been released to the health department.

On another note, I visited Navarre Beach over the weekend and was flabbergasted at the number of people swimming and surfing, including parents with small children. Saw a lone dolphin swimming off the end of the pier, which I thought was odd since they normally swim in pods.

reply to post by blowinbubblz


the health department are the people who test the water to see if it is safe in the pensacola area, if it is tested ok for two days then they open the beach, are you sa ying this process was bypassed and the beach was closed without the health department's testing?

[edit on 6/29/2010 by indigothefish]

reply to post by indigothefish

Dr. John Lanza, director of Escambia County Health Department, said the reason for leaving the decision up to beachgoers on whether to swim is because the oil situation on the beach is "very dynamic."

"We have a situation that changes from one hour to the next, from one tide to the next, from wave to wave, from one wind direction to another," he said.

Lanza said this ever-changing environment is something "we're going to face for weeks or months in the future."

The oil impact signs would be posted indefinitely and warn beachgoers that oil has washed up on the beaches. But the impact advisory would not prohibit people from going swimming as the health advisory for Pensacola Beach issued from Wednesday to Friday morning did.

The above sounds like what blowinbubblz heard about closing the beach because of what "officials see in the water". If a "wave" of oil washes ashore, the beach/water is unsafe/"swim at own risk" until cleaned up. The beach/water is then "safe" until the next wave of oil, whenever that happens. Regardless of testing in a lab.

It does seem to be unprecedented for the area health officials. The usual testing, as is done for beaches here, would be testing for unsafe levels of bacteria I imagine. Test, unsafe; retest at a later time, safe. What a nightmare!

It is easy to blame, what about these 400 people who don't use common sense, I am sure many of those 400 were children who had no choice and listen to their parents. I remember in the seventies when I use to take my children to visit their grandparents, they lived East of Cleveland in a town on Lake Erie which at the time was heavily polluted from the chemical factories in the area, in those years I never allowed my children to swim there, they would have signs up, no swimming today and the next day the signs would be gone, excuse me if it's polluted what difference does a day make, again people have to use common sense, don't these same people watch the news?

Originally posted by Boomer1941

Originally posted by JBA2848

Heres Crist this morning saying the water is fine.



[edit on 28-6-2010 by JBA2848]

So...what else is he going to say...follow the money trail.
Here's a snippet I read this morning

snip
I received the following this weekend from a commercial airline captain:

"George, Saturday afternoon, just flew from Chicago to Orlando. do this often. Around 14000" a dark hazy level across the state (Florida) as far as I could see. Have never seen this before. There were T-storms north of Orlando that didn't seem to make any difference. Also, just north of Atlanta, for a short time at 33000' I smelt oil in the air. I am an airline pilot and am always in the air."
snip
source

Seriously? That pilot could smell oil inside the pressurized cabin of an airliner?

Sorry, I dipped litmus paper in this post and came up with BS all over it....

reply to post by Rich Z


Pressurized cabins still use atmospheric air. Smells from outside the aircraft could be pumped into the aircraft. Plus, I can confirm the "haze" that Florida has experienced most of this summer. It is quite unusual. I have never seen it in my 11 years here. I was telling family members in Missouri that it reminds me of wintertime up there.

As for the Beach closings: I don't think the water or air poses any threat to tourists. They need to keep coming to Florida, keep making those reservations, keep funding my state's government, otherwise we will have a real economic crisis on top of the ecological one! Seriously though, 1 week at the beach and in the Gulf won't cause any issues. Living here for the whole summer is another story, and I am not to certain yet if I think the oil is causing these odd respitory and sinus ailments. Everyone I know in Tallahassee has a cold/flu right now!

Here is a link to the text and video I was talking about.

www.weartv.com...

I personally don't think it's too bright to have the "if I can't see it, it isn't there" attitude. However, I also believe it's up to the individual to decide if he wants to swim in toxic swill.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
I can confirm the "haze" that Florida has experienced most of this summer. It is quite unusual. I have never seen it in my 11 years here. I was telling family members in Missouri that it reminds me of wintertime up there.

You know, one thing I always enjoyed about vacationing eastward was getting to look at what clear blue sky is. Driving/flying home in the summer, I would get to the Southwest and the haze would begin.

No one should avoid a vacation to Florida or any gulf state! Like I said in another post, there is just so much more than the coast. I am not downplaying the catastrophe of the oil leak, the devastation to the sea life and human life, but these states need tourist $ now more than ever.

While the good citizens of these states must decide how they want their future economy to look like, what with the long term effects along the coast, for now people should still enjoy spending vacation dollars there.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
I was at our Main Fire Station today in Tallahasseee. I asked the about the breathing problems and fumes. (My wife and youngest son have colds, and I have a sore throat...odd for June/jULY) Anyhow, the Firemen said there were not any harmful chemicals associated with the oil spill. Some of these guys have been cleaning up at the beaches either voluntarily, or through their official duties, and they said there is very little actually harmful stuff in the oil fumes, unless you have prolonged exposure (years not days) or unless you are in a quite concentrated and enclosed area.

Now these guys are the experts, so I tend to believe them, and they are out there practicing what they preach, so it means they believe it.

Still, this sinus infection going around my town is very odd?

I do 100% agree with you that the increase in the number of people with summer colds etc have in fact been on the rise. but regarding the Firemen saying that the fumes are not dangerous is ridiculous. I do not doubt that's what you were told, but, come on. the problem itself is not just with the oil itself, but all the other toxins that are being used to "clean" it up. Smog in main cities is not good for people to breathe in, so how could basically "bathing" in THOSE conditions be harmless?

Originally posted by getreadyalready
Living here for the whole summer is another story, and I am not to certain yet if I think the oil is causing these odd respitory and sinus ailments. Everyone I know in Tallahassee has a cold/flu right now!

Well my wife and I live below Tallahassee, and no one WE know has a cold/flu at this time. My wife works a couple days a week at one of the local seafood markets in Panacea and I asked her to check around to see if anyone was getting sick from being out on the water. NO ONE is getting sick that she was able to determine.

The times I have driven into town and been at the mall and various shops, no, I didn't see people sick at all.

Maybe we just run in different circles than you do, but I want to balance out your statement with mine with a different view.

Interestingly enough, a friend of mine called me from Mississippi last night and he told me he was extremely puzzled by all this. He crossed over Mobile Bay and rode along the beaches in MS, and didn't see ANY sign of oil whatsoever. I'm REALLY beginning to wonder how much of all this is just media hype. I can see where I'm going to need to drive along the coast myself with camcorder in hand and see what I can see. But it may not be for another couple of weeks, however. But with any luck, the world will not have ended before then...

reply to post by Rich Z


The mouth of the Mississppi river will have very little oil around it due to the river water pushing out into the Gulf. The oil follows the current. A hurricane could change that if it hits along the Mississippi due to the wind and surge that would come with it.

reply to post by jeffrybinladen


Try telling the fish and marine mammals the same stupid thing. Tourists got to swim, you know. Keep up the pretense of normalcy. Its not the oil, its the dispersants that are caustic/toxic, by the way.

Hundreds of thousands of human lives who depend on the bounty of the gulf will be forever hopeless. Wait until all the sea birds start to migrate back in September. What a mess...

reply to post by DancedWithWolves


Dead On!!!!!!!!!!!!

You don't know how many times that scene has come to mind as I watch the coverage. Charlie Crist says the water is fine and the toxic sludge is just a nuisance. He and his wife went swimming.

Just like when the Mayor dragged his family out to the water to go swimming with the shark waiting for a snack.

Alot of folks have said that these people deserve to get sick for going into the water, but I don't think that's entirely fair considering that there are alot of seemingly credible people with a vested interest telling them the water is safe...

Source
FL Governor deems coastal waters safe, no toxicity from BP spill
Florida Governor, Charlie Crist, went on record this morning by stating that the coastal waters and the surf are safe to swim in and that there is no toxicity in the waters as a result of the BP oil spill. He further stated that the oil and tar balls are more of a nuisance but are not dangerous for beachgoers or swimmers.

This is in sharp contrast with the health advisory which was issued this morning by the Escambia County Health Department. Bob West, public safety manager at Pensacola Beach, said the warning was issued because of dangerous surf conditions due to hurricane Alex. Mr. West declined to answer the question as to why such an advisory was not issued on Monday.

That crap DOES remind me of the mayor in the original Jaws movie, so obsessed with making sure that money kept rolling in from beach goers that he ignored the warnings... I think the Governor shold take his kids, if he has any, to the beach and let them waller around in the bubbling Corexit and Tarballs to set an example for the rest of the state of Florida. I understand that tourism is #1 in Florida, but damn...


[edit on 30-6-2010 by twitchy]

reply to post by desert


seems to me like they are doing whatever they can to keep the beach open as much as possible, such as not testing the water *that would likely reveal it is unsafe at ALL times*