Live By The Oil...

Well, I started this morning reading an article from 2001 from the LA Times about the failing health of the workers who cleaned up the Exxon Valdez spill.

"After that summer, some found oil traces in their lungs, in their blood cells, in the fatty tissue of their buttocks. They got treated for headaches, nausea, chemical burns and breathing problems, and went home. But some never got well. Steve Cruikshank of Wasilla, Alaska, has headaches that go on for days. Two years ago, he was hospitalized when his lungs nearly stopped working. "The doctor said, 'I'm going to give you the strongest antibiotic known to man, and you're either going to survive or not survive. I don't know what's wrong with you.' What's wrong is, I haven't felt right since that oil spill.""

So I tried to look for some follow up information. I couldn't find it. I assume it's not much in the way of news -- or people got paid off a bit to shut up -- or died. I found some things written around the time of the spill -- there was a record salmon catch that year in Prince William sound -- which has, again, that sort of irony floating about it -- the article said fears were allayed by the catch; of course the fishing industry was subsequently devastated by the spill.

In Google magic I found a protest article called "Clean Up Chevron!"

"The protesters highlighted a litany of Chevron crimes from Iraq, Burma, Ecuador, Nigeria, the Philippines, Canada, and Richmond, California." Again, I'm not going to link this -- feels too unstable.

I guess I'm thinking about the toxicity we live in and around.
And then when the inevitable breakdown -- collision -- seepage or spills occur...

I looked at photos from spills last year -- California and Korea. I was expecting a change in uniform for the workers -- but they are still cleaning without masks. And in California, all those shiny volunteers walking the beaches to help...

How we live is toxic.
Cleaning it up is toxic too.

And where do we put it?

Bury it in the sand...
burn it into the air...

What happens to us as we try to recover -- to clean -- our proximity increases...