Last week’s oil spill off the coast of Louisiana is showing off once again how mankind engages in destructive activities. The oil rising from the sea floor is “posing a major threat to the ecosystem of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.”
All of this is happening after earlier in the month President Obama authorized new gas drilling off US coasts.
This morning, The New York Times reported that oil has started washing ashore. You probably don’t want to be around the oil. An article from Discovery News explains why.
Among the plethora of poisonous chemicals that you can absorb into your body by just breathing or getting oil on your skin include benzene, toluene and xylene. These can cause everything from a quick sensation of drunkenness (coupled with hangover-from-hell symptoms), to cancers and other diseases of the kidneys, liver, bone marrow, lungs and central nervous system.
Nils Warnock from the California Oiled Wildlife Care Network says that you don’t want the oil on you nor do you want to be breathing it.
Humans aren’t the only species who are in danger.
Among the most tragic signs that the oil spill has reached land will be the oil-soaked wildlife. Birds are particularly common on shores, says Warnock, because when oil gets in their feathers — which serve as a bird’s downy insulation from cold — birds quickly get hypothermic and head for shore in an attempt to warm up.
