Sealants Double Dose of Toxins Compared to Oil Spill

Recent headlines (September 30, 2010): Cancer-Causing Compounds Multiply in Gulf After Oil Spill; Gulf Oil Spill Leaves Behind Cancer Causing Agents

Earlier this year our nation suffered the largest oil spill in our history.  Every day we continued to hear the news that more oil was entering the Gulf of Mexico.  No doubt this has greatly effected the ecosystem and the local economy.  Some scientists from the University of Oregon have completed a study that attempts to quantify the amount of oil that spilled and to further explain the chemical constituents in the oil.

Did you know that the quantity of “cancer causing” polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) dumped in the Gulf from the oil spill only amount to half of what is sprayed throughout our country annually as coal tar sealants?  That’s right.  Put another way is that we spread the equivalent quantity of PAHs of the Deep Water Horizon every six months of every year in around our homes, schools and businesses!  Does that make sense?