BP-Funded Univ. Expert Testifies: 'No Compelling Evidence 'Gulf Co. Workers, Residents Injured

There is “no compelling evidence” BP’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis damaged the health of cleanup workers and Gulf Coast residents, according to a health expert from a university that BP paid at least $25 million in research grants to study the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and response.

That’s how the beginning of the arguably biggest trial of this century began Monday when the U.S. Department of Justice went to court with global oil giant BP.

BP Shill Testifies

Not only is there “no compelling evidence” that BP injured workers and residents, there’s also no reason to believe longer-term studies will expose chronic illnesses linked to the disaster, according to a public health expert’s testimony Monday (Jan. 26) according to the Times Picayune. The Picayune, however, did not disclose a major link between the expert and BP.

Robert Cox, the physician, toxicology expert and professor who testified Monday is from the University of Mississippi, a major recipient of BP funds to research the impact of the worst environmental crisis that had occurred in history.

Cox’s testimony focused on what the Times Picayune, as other contemporary news outlets, repeatedly calls a “spill” (as if accidental) and it’s health impact on cleanup workers and coastal residents, broader public health implications, and BP’s efforts to mitigate health risks.

Cox, “reviewed government health data collected in the wake of the spill, said there is no indication that exposure to oil or dispersants used in the cleanup effort caused any public health threats.”

Soon after the unprecedented oil crisis, BP PLC had already arranged to pay Gulf Coast universities huge sums of money to conduct research on its crisis. In June 2010, it announced paying universities $500-million to study effects of the its oil and Corexit on environmental and public health. BP started with $25 million, some of that first amount going to the institute led by Mississippi State University (MSU), according to the Mississippi Business Journal in 2010.

Cox is a professor at the Mississippi University Medical Center. Doctors at medical centers throughout the south, (exceptions so rare, locals called those courageous ones “Gulf Heroes”) refused to test, thus properly diagnose and treat the thousands of Gulf Coast workers and residents who presented to them ill health signs, some debilitating, after the crisis began. Medical inhumanity was rampant. Repeatedly, there were new accounts of women being discredited and told they had mental health issues when they went to doctors with oil and Corexit-related health issues.

You’ve not been told the truth since Day 1 of the 2010 Gulf oil operation, especially about the medical inhumanity. For a small glimpse of that horror, watch the book trailer below.

As detailed in hundreds of referenced pages of this author’s book, Vampire of Macondo, the name signifying Gulf Coast women, children and men, who were bleeding from all oriifices among other horrid conditions after expsoed to the lethal oil and Corexit brew, medical inhumanity was and has remained rampant. Not only were universities bought off to hide the health impacts of millions of people poisoned with oil and Corexit, paid thugs were threatening doctors for recording and treating patients suffering new, major health impacts. (Vampire of Macondo, Chapter 7: Medical Inhumanity Unprecedented Awfulness, pp 211 – 240, and Chapter 10: Genocide, Crime against Humanity: Violence against Women and Spill Children pp  283 – 314.)  Dr. Wilma Subra was among those violently threatened. She experienced a bullet shot through her front door. Other such tales of experiencing thuggery were told, only by those attempting to practice ethically.

Another Gulf Hero, Dr. Robichaux, locally known as Dr. Mike had some 40 patients, each suddenly suffering a wide range of symptoms after the BP crisis, all of whom he believed resulted from dispersed Macondo oil. He disclosed that not only univesities, but even oil industry clinics and hospitals had been paid hush money and doctors as well as staff had been threatened to not properly test, diagnose or treat patients with signs of oil and Corexit poisoning. Dr. Mike was even denied the right to admit a patient suffering seizures after exposed to the oil and Corexit. Without treatment, that patient lost motor and sensory nerve functions in both his left arm and left leg. That was only one of his 40 patients, and they were among thousands medically mistreated.

Big Oil BP had ensured with its big money that univesities and top medical facilities, including Ochner Clinic in New Orleans, participated in a criminal conspiracy to hide the tragic health iimpact of the crisis.

“The abuse committed was even greater than that. Poor, undocumented aliens and prisoners were chosen to clean up the hazardous material in the Gulf and on its beaches. Their human rights were gravely violated. Obama and his administration knew about and condoned those violations.” (Vampire of Macondo)

Desperate for work, mostly people of color, many undocumented aliens and many prisoners had been hired for oil cleanup, all due to die prematurely due to those abusive conditions.

“All the workers are sick,” said ex-BP employee Kellie Fellows.“Everyone on the bus complained of headaches. Everyone complained of their chest hurting. A lot of people coughing. That kind of thing. Not only on our bus. Our friends’ busses. My family’s busses.

“I know a foreman who was hospitalized right off the bat… She had pneumonia,” Fellows said. “They tried to just tell her it was anything but due to the oil. And everyone was given excuses: ‘Oh, you have the flu. It’s going around. It’s allergies.’ Every excuse but the oil.” (Vampire of Macondo)

You’ve not been told the truth since the Gulf crisis began. Albeit a slippery black slope, the BP beat goes on.

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Learn more: Read Vampire of Macondo.