An Oregon State University toxicology team has been sampling Gulf of Mexico water for contamination over the course of the BP spill and recovery. Although this work is not yet published, they report finding a 40-fold increase in often carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic compounds between May and June. They are now sampling with a technique that can select only the chemicals that are bioavailable -- the ones likely to make us sick and able to move into the food chain.
This study is crucial to understanding how chemical dispersants and exposure to UV light -- both factors that can crack hydrocarbons -- act on crude and affect PAH levels and bioavailability of the toxins created in an oil spill. The "deployed dispersant" study is pertinant in the BP spill, because they sprayed so much of the chemical onto the water's surface.
continued at Daily Kos....
