ALERT: 13.3 ppm of COREXIT found INLAND, near Florida border — Chemist says tests show “toxic solvent” 2-butoxyethanol that “RUPTURES red blood cells”

Florida Oil Spill Law

Corexit found in Orange Beach Waters, WKRG Channel 5, August 19, 2010:

[Cotton Bayou, Ala. resident] Margaret Long… first got suspicious when she saw something in the water she had never seen before. She even took photographs, “Some times it’s about the size of a half dollar. Some times it streams along and its like floating sand.”

She got samples and sent them to chemist Bob Naman in Mobile whose tests results show 13.3 ppm of the chemical dispersant corexit. …

“It concerns me,” says Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon. …

“There is an anger yes, very much an anger. I fear what the long term affects are going to be.” Her only question now is what will be done about it.

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Bob Naman is the analytical chemist who performed the tests featured in WKRG’s broadcast. He was interviewed by Washington’s Blog for an August 24 report. Highlights include:

• Naman found 2-butoxyethanol in the Cotton Bayou sample. [Ingredient in 'discontinued' Corexit 9527.]
• Naman said found no propylene glycol, the main ingredient of Corexit 9500.
• Naman said he went to Dauphin Island, Alabama last night and while there observed many 250-500 gallon barrels which were labeled Corexit 9527. Naman took pictures that he will soon be sharing.
• Naman said he saw men applying the Corexit 9527 while he was in Dauphin Island and also in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.
• Naman said the Corexit 9527 is being haphazardly sprayed at night and is impacting beach sands in a highly concentrated form.

Scientists oppose the use of dispersant chemicals in the Gulf of Mexico, MSNBC, July 16, 2010:

Corexit 9527A contains 2-BTE (2-butoxyethanol), a toxic solvent that ruptures red blood cells, causing hemolysis (bleeding) and liver and kidney damage (Johanson and Bowman, 1991, Nalco, 2010). Both Corexit dispersants contain petroleum solvents that mix with the crude oil mass and move through it, thus increasing the uptake of oil by organisms (NRC, 2005, Nalco, 2010). Signed by:

• Sylvia A. Earle, PhD, Oceanographer, Ocean Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society,
  Washington DC.
• David E. Guggenheim, PhD, Marine Biologist/Conservationist, President, 1planet1ocean – a project of
  The Ocean Foundation, Washington DC
• Susan D. Shaw, DrPH, Marine Toxicologist, Founder, Marine Environmental Research Institute, Blue Hill,
  ME
• David Gallo, PhD, Oceanographer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA

Naman’s photos of the 9527 have now been uploaded.

Here’s a sampling: