CNN aired a special this weekend Behind the scenes of 'Rescue: Saving the Gulf' which didn't particularly interest me since I thought it looked like a bit of PR for BP by the network. But as Laffy noted over at The Political Carnival, CNN may have just documented something they didn't mean to if they were trying to do either BP or the government any favors.
UPDATED: “CNN may not know what they have documented.” + VIDEO:
Hugh Kaufman just messaged me the following, along with a link to the video below:
CNN may not know what they have documented. Will anybody tell them? Will they figure it out? …
CNN documents, on this documentary airing tonight and tomorrow, that the “air smell’s [sic] bad” (it’s full of carcinogenic and other hazardous material in oil and dispersants). None of the cleanup workers are wearing respirators and nobody is testing the air.
Just like 911 WTC, these workers are gonna be in trouble 5, 10, and 20 years down the line.
Where is EPA and OSHA?
I thought the same thing when I was watching the special. Where are the respirators for these workers and for the CNN reporter for that matter? Gloves, hardhats, boots and safety vests don't cut it with protecting them from this toxic sludge. I posted Hugh Kaughman's interview on Democracy Now the other day talking about how toxic that crude and those dispersants are.
Here's CNN's feedback page if you'd like to contact them and ask them why their reporter wasn't wearing the proper protective gear to be around that mess they're cleaning up and why they didn't bother to ask why the workers weren't wearing the right gear in their special.
Transcript below the fold.
MARCIANO: Can you show me where we are right now?
KENNEDY: Sure. We are just southwest of Pensacola, about eight or nine miles, and then first thing in the morning we'll be getting the deck ready and are - probably have a barge alongside that we're going to pump to directly tomorrow, if the weather is good, and it should be a good day.
MARCIANO: Well, thank you. We'll - we'll see you in the morning.
KENNEDY: Very good.
MARCIANO: But before we turn in for the night, I get a sense for what's in store for me.
MARCIANO: Wow. So this is the first taste I've got of - of a skimming vessel. All the equipment that they're pulling out right now is completely caked in thick, heavy crude.
This is just a mess. Smell the oil. Hot, 30 and the sun's not even up. I can't imagine these guys doing this for 10, 12-hour shifts in the heat of the day. These guys are - are busting it to try to clean up the gulf.
What is that thing up there?
SEVILLE RASMUSSEN, USCG YEOMAN: We're bringing down the skimmer right now. We're bringing on the hose. We're making out the hose, and it's going to drop the skimmer right there, so we can wrap it up in plastic to contain the oil, because tomorrow morning it'll - it'll heat up and it will be all liquid, make a big mess.
MARCIANO: So that's the main - the vacuum that's been sucking up the oil all day?
RASMUSSEN: Yes. That's the skimmer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey (INAUDIBLE) go slow.
MARCIANO: Look at the size of that boom they're pulling out of the water right now. The crane, it's just all much, much bigger than I ever imagined. It's amazing.
This is where I'm going to be working tomorrow, and it's an intimidating, messy thought.
