Slashdot Mirror


Oil Means More Arsenic In Seawater

oxi writes "Besides the oil already spilling into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of up to 60,000 barrels daily, a group of British scientists says one can expect to see elevated levels of arsenic as well. The research, published in the journal Water Research, showed that oil prevents naturally-occurring arsenic from being filtered out of the water by the sediment on the ocean floor."

24 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. OMG! by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well in other news every time I pee in the ocean the ph level drops too.

    This is about as valuable insight as a story above without any meaningful interpretation of what the rising level of arsenic means. How much more arsenic will there be? Will the entire ocean die? Will just a few patches of the Gulf die? Or more likely will it not make the tiniest bit of difference?

    1. Re:OMG! by MrKaos · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How much more arsenic will there be? Will the entire ocean die? Will just a few patches of the Gulf die? Or more likely will it not make the tiniest bit of difference?

      I found these two abstracts that may help. Langmuir adsorption model is used to determine the effects.

      I was trying to put some perspective on the BP oil spill for myself and found it's roughly an Exxon Valdez (E.V) disaster every week (based on approx 50,000 bbls per day), so it's 6 E.V's so far. Considering the amount of damage that was done there, local fisheries are now supported by hatcheries so the overall toxicity of the oil spill has pretty much destroyed the ecosystem. Twenty years later not much seems to have improved and Huffington Post reports not only the human health implications but the same-old same-old response we get from these companies as data collection efforts are simply stopped. Ignorance really is bliss and when it's not possible to do any science and politicians in the future can honestly say "The health implications cannot be determined".

      That arsenic is a carcinogen that bio-accumulates in the environment means that even if this catastrophe was to stop right now the human health implications are something that will continue to unfold well into the next generation. Airborne pollutants like Hydrogen Sulfide, which took a week to dissipate from E.V just continue.

      Bottom line: No-one knows (A metric ass load?). EPA says you can't harvest fish from seawater with a greater concentration of 0.0175 micrograms of Arsenic. Seawater is more capable of containing As than fresh water and there are many other factors (temperature, organic/inorganic As) that determine toxicity. Pressure from the depth of water is also a factor. I think what is being said here is that the Gulf of Mexico's days as a fishery are pretty much over and it's time to drill the shit out of that oil reserve and empty it as soon as possible.

      Lets be realistic No-one is going to take the risk of being the "Oh but you made it worse" person that everyone points fingers at so NO-ONE will do ANYTHING. Right now you are seeing the people standing around the dying person bleeding wondering when someone is going to call the ambulance. I blame the greenies, if they'd have protested more none of this would have ever happened and we could have lived our apathetic little lives without an oil spill of this magnitude. As it so happens now we have to live our apathetic little live without the luxury of ignorance going, tsk tsk that oil spill - so bad tsk tsk.

      References; Neff, Bioaccumulation in Marine Organisms: Effect of Contaminants from Oil Well Produced Water

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    2. Re:OMG! by Eternauta3k · · Score: 3, Funny

      Boring? The guy sweats acid!

      --
      Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
  2. What's the concentration? by Animats · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is probably some parts-per-billion phenomenon.

    Arsenic is naturally found in some fish, and the concentrations approach regulatory limits. It's not clear in what compounds the arsenic appears; if it's locked into a compound that doesn't metabolize, it's probably not a problem.

    1. Re:What's the concentration? by fotoguzzi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why aren't we helping the fish help themselves?

      Give a fish a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a fish to fish, you have invented the shark.

      --
      Their they're doing there hair.
  3. Good news everybody! by jordan_robot · · Score: 3, Funny
    This means we'll all build an immunity to...

    Oh dear.

  4. naturally-occurring arsenic by lxs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    is there any other kind?

  5. Re:A little arsenic.... by lxs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    have you tried looking it up on the internet?

  6. Re:And yet... by JackieBrown · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everything that is possibly sensational about this story (as if the spill wasn't sensational enough) will be reported.

    This spill is a reporters wet dream and they will milk it for everything they can.

    Did you see the "will it rain oil" stories they were running now that we started hurricane season?

    It is 1:30 AM CST and I am willling to bet good money that if I go into the break room at my job, Anderson Cooper is on with more oil spill coverage. I don't think the guy reports on anything else and he seems to be all that is on for CNN at night

  7. Save the Gulf: Send the Enterprise by nido · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am of the opinion that the best way to clean up the Gulf of Mexico is to Send the Enterprise (no, not that Enterprise, silly rabbits!). The complete proposal is given at the link.

    Tell everyone you know.

    (kuro5hin.org has two options for voting for a story: "Front Page" and "Section Page". 93% of the people who voted for my story voted FP, so I have reason to believe that my proposal has merit.)

    --
    Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
    www.teslabox.com
    1. Re:Save the Gulf: Send the Enterprise by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're still not getting it. With the scales we are talking about, you'd be better off zipping out into the middle of the gulf yourself on a zodiac and blowing bubbles in the water with a drinking straw. It'd be a hell of a lot cheaper, and it'd accomplish about as much.

      --
      "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  8. Send Wonder Woman instead perhaps - or aquaman? by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With respect, that article shows the author really has not the remotest clue about the navy, oil experts, oil eating bacteria, oxygen in water, weather (stopping a hurricane - OMFG), and let me just add reality in general to the list.
    Massive fuckups that can not be solved quickly with all the experts on earth happen - and this is one of them. We're just going to have to cope with it being fixed slowly.
    It makes a good story to send a "ship of heroes" but unfortunately magic does not exist in this world so they won't be able to fix it any more quickly.

    1. Re:Send Wonder Woman instead perhaps - or aquaman? by dbIII · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't get out to the movies much so I wasn't aware of that technology. Does it come with a large persian cat to stroke when you order the device to be activated?
      It reminds me of a quote from a congressional review from the 1960s where a scientist said the output of a laser was ten to the six watts and they needed ten to the twelve watts for an application. "Wonderful" said a Senator, "We're halfway there!".

  9. Re:And yet... by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe you should care how nature took care of other ocean contaminations on the past,

  10. Re:And yet... by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some have turned out not all that catastrophically, though.

  11. In related news: Not much hope of making it stop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-461896

    "According to Sagalevich’s report, the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico is not just coming from the 22 inch well bore site being shown on American television, but from at least 18 other sites on the “fractured seafloor” with the largest being nearly 11 kilometers (7 miles) from where the Deepwater Horizon sank and is spewing into these precious waters an estimated 2 million gallons of oil a day."

    "As a prominent oil-industry insider, and one of the World's leading experts on peak oil, Simmons further warns that the US has only two options, “let the well run dry (taking 30 years, and probably ruining the Atlantic ocean) or nuking the well.” "

    "On top of the environmental catastrophe currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico the situation may about to get even worse as new reports from the US are confirming the grim predictions of Russian scientists regarding the oil dispersement poisons being used by BP which are being swept up into the clouds and falling as toxic rain destroying every living plant it touches"

  12. Re:And yet... by Gerzel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah but nature taking care of it may very well not include life going on.

  13. Re:And yet... by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While CNN is the butt of all media jokes (Hello? Is anyone out there?! TWEET US SOME NEWS PLEASE!), I'll give Anderson Cooper props for talking about the 65ft exclusion zone they're enforcing around response vessels and oil booms.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsmLMV1CrM

    Call it milking but if the Coast Guard is doing this and BP is hiring police to run off reporters and anyone curious (link), I certainly hope they don't stop talking about it.

  14. So what? by joetheappleguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fish don't vote.

    Drill, baby! Drill!

    Palin / Haliburton 2012!!

  15. Re:In related news: Not much hope of making it sto by iammani · · Score: 4, Funny

    Khyber is troll... See his other posts...
    1) His father designed the Harpoon radar guidance system
    2) He worked at HP repair line right next to Dell help line
    3) He has immense knowledge about pH and chemistry
    4) and what do we have here... He has worked on oil platforms and his solution is
    i) relief wells... mmm why didnt BP think of this... not wait... they started working on two relief wells long long ago and they have been trying (or pretending to do something in the meanwhile) to temporary stop the flow till the relief wells are operational.
    ii) C-4s, ahh how innovative. When the GP talked about nuking it, did you somehow think it is the radiation from the nuke that would stop the leak? The GP effectively meant blow it up (he said with nukes, and you say with C-4s). And I would leave it as excersie to the reader, whether nuking it easier or C-4s are easier at this depth. PS: before someone flames me, I am neither in favor nor in opposition to blowing it up

  16. Re:A little arsenic.... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't blame the masses for what the masses will always do. You have to place the blame where it starts. Yes, people bought the SUVs. They were told they needed to buy them because they were the biggest and the best and so they did. The masses are mindless drones as Apple can plainly attest. It's the marketing and fashion people who really drive the masses... for better or for worse. And what drove the marketers? Well, the people who want to sell bigger and more expensive things, of course. There's a lot more profit in the big machines than there is in the little ones so naturally they want to sell the big ones. These same auto makers also managed to convince the people (AKA the government) to stop building railroads and to build freeways instead.

    The demand for SUVs didn't happen until the SUVs happened... well that's not entirely true either -- I can remember when the Suburban was essentially a worker's vehicle until someone put leather interiors and other features in it, jacked up the price to more than twice what it was and now it's "for rich people." They polished a turd and sold it as a diamond. So when figuring out where the blame belongs, you need to follow the greed, not the masses. The masses don't think for themselves and I pretty much thought everyone knew that already... you knew that already right?

    If you knew the masses don't think for themselves, how can you blame them? Maybe it's just easier to "blame the Americans" for being born on their particular plot of concrete and soil and living the lives that were handed down to them from their parents and know of no other way to live? Going down that road, you are essentially blaming people for being born and inheriting their culture. How much sense does THAT make?! Should I also blame you for where and when you were born?

    No. It's better to blame those who actually have the influence to make changes and fail to do so to the benefit of the planet and mankind.

  17. Re:In related news: Not much hope of making it sto by khallow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On top of the environmental catastrophe currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico the situation may about to get even worse as new reports from the US are confirming the grim predictions of Russian scientists regarding the oil dispersement poisons being used by BP which are being swept up into the clouds and falling as toxic rain destroying every living plant it touches

    Bullshit. Florida (as well as the rest of the Gulf coast) isn't some mysterious location about which little is known. If there was toxic rain "destroying every living plant it touches", we'd have a zillion people on the internet complaining about their messed up lawns. We'd probably have riots in Tallahassee (the capitol of Florida). This stuff would get in the news too. And Obama would have photo-ops all over the place. Because an evil oil corporation destroying voters' lawns, especially lawns in a critical swing state, is a crisis that Obama could use.

    Keep in mind that the relief wells come in below most of that fracturing. It's also possible that the fracturing and oil leaks were already there. Just because oil leaks out of the Gulf seafloor, doesn't mean it came from a BP oil well.

  18. Re:It's not just BP down there is it? by moonbender · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So who then are the right people?
    If you know why haven't you sent their names to the Government so they can do more than just worry about why it's taking so long?
    Also is it really a "news blackout" is is there really just nothing else to report?
    How on earth would BP enforce a news blackout anyway?

    Are you astroturfing or something?

    The right people would have been the Dutch.

    Sending their names to the government woudn't help; they've already refused the help.

    There is a kind-of blackout, ie here is CNN's take on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpJBsjKhRTo

    BP doesn't enforce the blackout, the government does.

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  19. Re:In related news: Not much hope of making it sto by arb+phd+slp · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can seal that bitch with half a million dollars worth of focused C-4 charges from 50 feet down to 500 feet of well-breach.

    It's a trick to get us to do exactly that, triggering the fault line and bringing a volcanic island to the surface that Cobra can use as their headquarters. We're not going to fall for that ploy.

    --
    There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.