In the summer of 2010, BP used Corexit oil dispersants to make the catastrophe look less severe, but little was known at the time about the long-term environmental effects of the chemicals used. Subsequent studies have shown that the chemicals increased the toxicity of the spill by as much as 52 times.
Australia’s 60 Minutes national television program has broadcast its investigation about BP and Corexit, saying that the oil giant has, in effect, carpet-bombed Americans along the Gulf of Mexico coast, creating a “health catastrophe.”
“When petroleum giant BP spilled millions of litres of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico three years ago, it was the worst ever offshore oil disaster. Now, this environmental disaster is a health catastrophe,” 60 Minutes says in its Special Report, Crude Solution – Part 1.