Could Exxon be endangering Guyanese even more?

Aug 30, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Why are Guyanese silent and sitting on their hands, when recent disclosures indicate that they could be in severe danger? Why is the Guyana Government ignoring, and pretending to be unconcerned with what came from internally renowned expert, Robert Bea, through The Guardian newspaper, about the toxic dangers and severe human fallouts whenever the banned chemical Corexit 9500 is used to manage an oil spill? And why is Exxon, with all of its oil industry knowledge and experience, so thoughtless, even reckless, as to include this same highly harmful chemical, Corexit 9500, as part of its plans and response in the event of a local oil spill?
To our fellow citizens, we have this to say: personal health and quality of life could be in danger. It is not somebody else’s, and great harm could come through “blood in urine and kidney and liver disorders attributed to 2-Butoxyethanol” (“Exxon plans to use highly toxic chemical banned in the UK to contain oil spill offshore Guyana -Industry Expert warns” KN August 29).
Liver and kidney disorders are not some passing bout of the common flu, but severe, life altering diseases that can linger with great bodily trauma and costs, which ordinary Guyanese can’t afford to cover. This chemical dispersant used on surfaces to contain oil spills is banned in the United Kingdom, because of serious problems there with its downside effects on marine life, the environment, and human beings.
So, why is this good enough to be included in Exxon’s contingency plans should an oil spill occur in Guyana’s waters 125 miles from our shores? If it is considered so dangerous by UK authorities for their own people, then why is this Corexit 9500 chemical dispersant thought of as being safe and not a problem for Guyanese, overwhelmingly poor and coloured? Is it that Exxon and its corporate strategists have figured that the wellbeing and lives of Guyanese (all of them) don’t matter in their grand schemes?
It goes without saying that a lot of things, all highly alarming and still more highly angering, are in motion here. Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s leading oilman, has not uttered so much as boo, since we originally made this and other revelations over a week ago, compliments of Robert Bea and The Guardian.
Dr. Jagdeo is content to practice his usual silence and dodges, when hard facts like these come up, as presented by this paper. One would have thought that, being the patriot that he is, he would be up in arms and denouncing this reality, as well as those responsible for it. But he has been silent. Dr. Jagdeo usually scornfully dismisses international experts, whose analyses conflict with the sweet oil narratives that he likes to present to Guyanese.
Instead of exposing him for his weakness challenging him for his failure to say anything on this occasion, we urge him to take the closest look at this Corexit 9500 chemical that Exxon has included as part of its shabby containment plans, which has the potential to deliver serious harm to Guyana, from its marine life to human life. After Dr. Jagdeo has finished examining Corexit and satisfying himself as to its perils (which he may already know), he must then act swiftly and vigorously.
Guyana’s EPA must make it the highest priority to revisit Exxon’s disaster recovery (oil spill) plans, and call on Exxon to remove immediately the use of Corexit 9500 from those plans. In fact, it would be better for the Vice President to take the lead in this and publicly call on Exxon to get rid of the mention (and possible usage) of this dangerous Corexit 9500 from its range of responses to an oil spill in Guyana.
If the Vice President is genuine in holding Exxon accountable, he now has sufficient grounds to express extreme indignation that Exxon could think of Corexit 9500 and then include this radioactive chemical in its already shaky plans for Guyana.

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