Residents weren’t warned about oil hazards

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

The initial public relations response to the geyser that spewed from

an abandoned oil well in southeast Huntington Beach last week could

have been handled a lot better.

The city issued an immediate press release telling its residents

that the oil posed no health risk. According to news reports on

Friday, both state and local officials reiterated that there was no

hazard to public health. That certainly seems strange, since crude

oil is known to be a toxic health hazard.

Huntington Beach has been an oil town since 1921 when Bolsa Chica

No. 1 blew in with a roar. Oil gushed into the air and townspeople

celebrated. Oil meant money. No one knew about the hazards of crude

oil back then.

Our reaction to oil spraying into the air should be different

today. We have made the link between carcinogens and cancer, air-born

irritants and lung problems, and chemicals and neurological problems.

Now we know that repeated exposure to crude oil can cause diseases

such as aplastic anemia.

This is hardly Huntington Beach’s first oil spill. The worst spill

was in 1990, when the American Trader oil tanker pierced its hull on

its own anchor off our coast. At that time, we were well aware of the

hazards caused by crude oil. Vic headed up the bird rescue operation

and coordinated the volunteers who picked up oil-soaked birds from

the beach and brought them in for treatment. Vic brought the first

bird in himself, and I brought in the last, both western grebes.

During this crisis, volunteers were required to take a short

course on the hazards of crude oil and to don protective gear. Oil

cleanup workers wiping down the beach and rocks lining the Santa Ana

River and Talbert Marsh with oil-absorbent pads had to take several

hours of training on the hazards of crude oil. They were covered head

to toe in protective clothing, with gloves on their hands and rubber

boots on their feet. Yet even with training and protective gear, Vic

and I and others working around crude oil for even a short time

developed headaches, eye irritation and chest pains.

In 1990, we knew that crude oil was a hazardous substance. We knew

that crude oil contained volatile organic compounds such as benzene,

toluene, xylene, and hexane. Crude oil actually contains thousands of

compounds, but the biggest risk is from the aromatic hydrocarbons.

Trust us, aromatic doesn’t mean that they smell good. These compounds

end up in gasoline and are the reason why cancer warnings are posted

on every gas pump in the country.

The really bad smell from crude oil comes from hydrogen sulfide.

That isn’t so good for you either. Exposure to as little as 500 parts

per million hydrogen sulfide can cause headaches, dizziness and

nausea. After 15 minutes, people begin to stagger and their lungs

swell. Exposure to 1,000 parts per million causes immediate

unconsciousness and death. So does exposure to less than 500 parts

per million mean there is no problem at all?

When either Vic or I worked with any of those individual chemicals

back in our days as laboratory scientists, we worked in fume hoods

because of the well-known hazards these compounds pose. When these

individual chemicals are combined in crude oil, they form a witch’s

brew of lung and skin irritants and carcinogens.

Crude oil isn’t salad oil. It’s toxic. Yet when oil spewed for two

hours from a broken pipe in an abandoned oil well in southeast

Huntington Beach last week, the city issued a press release telling

residents that there was no risk to their health. Incredibly, the

city told the 360 residents whose property had been sprayed with an

estimated 7,000 gallons of crude oil to simply take their cars to a

car wash and to wash off their lawn furniture with soap and water.

There was no mention of the hazards of crude oil, and no call to even

wear rubber gloves or avoid contact or avoid breathing the fumes.

What we find appalling is this almost cavalier attitude toward a

potentially serious health hazard. Huntington Beach is an oil town.

If any place should know how to handle an oil spill, it is Huntington

Beach. If any place should be able to properly inform its citizens of

the inherent risks in crude oil, it is Huntington Beach.

We realize that the incident involved a fine mist of oil, not

inches of crude pouring onto the streets. We realize that the

hydrogen sulfide levels during this incident didn’t reach

life-threatening levels. But we don’t think that excuses the public

relations whitewash that followed. Just because people weren’t in

immediate danger of death doesn’t mean that there was no health risk.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.