By Enku Ide, Labor Notes
Jason Anderson, one of 11 workers killed during April's Deepwater
Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, had warned his family
that BP was pushing speed-up and straying from safety protocols.

Without a union to take his concerns to, Jason turned to his wife,
Shelly. "Everything seemed to be pressing to Jason, about getting things
in order, in case something happened," Shelly confessed during an NBC
interview.

Today, 27,000 workers in the BP-run Gulf cleanup effort may still be
in danger. Some are falling sick, and the long-term effects of chemical
exposure for workers and residents are yet unknown.

Workers lack power on the job to demand better safety enforcement.
They fear company retaliation if they speak out and are wary of
government regulators who have kept BP in the driver's seat.

BP carries a history of putting profit before worker safety. A 2005
refinery explosion in Texas City, Texas, killed 15 and injured another
108 workers. The Chemical Safety Board investigation resulted in a
341-page report stating that BP knew of "significant safety problems at
the Texas City refinery and at 34 other BP business units around the
world" months before the explosion.

One internal BP memo made a cost-benefit analysis of types of housing
construction on site in terms of the children's story "The Three Little
Pigs." "Brick" houses -- blast-resistant ones -- might save a few "piggies,"
but was it worth the initial investment?

BP decided not, costing several workers' lives. Federal officials
found more than 700 safety violations at Texas City and fined BP more
than $87 million in 2009, but the corporation has refused to pay.BP No Exception

According to the Steelworkers union, the oil industry saw 13 fires
that caused 19 deaths and 25 injuries during April and May alone,
including Deepwater Horizon. Oil refineries across the U.S. averaged a
fire each week.

Jim Savage, local president at a south Philadelphia refinery, sits on
the USW's national refinery bargaining council. Savage said BP is no
exception. Safety violations are rampant in the industry, especially in
the hectic final 12 hours before production starts up -- the same period
when the Deepwater disaster took place.

The Steelworkers requested in early July that the oil giants reopen
bargaining over health and safety, after they turned aside the union's
proposals in negotiations last year. The oil firms have refused.Cleanup Risks

Now workers in the cleanup effort face similar challenges to those
Jason Anderson and his 10 slain co-workers woke up to each morning.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy analyst Hugh Kaufman says
workers are being exposed to a "toxic soup," and face dangers like those
in the Exxon Valdez, Love Canal, and 9/11 cleanups.

The 1989 Exxon Valdez experience should have taught us about the
health fallouts of working with oil and chemical cleaners, but tests to
determine long-term effects on those workers were never done, by either
the company or OSHA. It appears they have faced health problems far
beyond any warnings given by company or government officials while the
work was going on.

Veterans of that cleanup, such as supervisor Merle Savage, reported
coming down with the same flu-like symptoms during their work that Gulf
cleanup workers are now experiencing. Savage, along with an estimated
3,000 cleanup workers, has lived 20 years with chronic respiratory
illness and neurological damage.

A 2002 study from a Spanish oil spill showed that cleanup workers and
community members have increased risk of cancer and that workers with
long-term exposure to crude oil can face permanent DNA damage.

So far, Louisiana has records of 128 cleanup workers becoming sick
with flu-like symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, and headaches,
after exposure to chemicals on the job. BP recorded 21 short
hospitalizations. When seven workers from different boats were
hospitalized with chemical exposure symptoms, BP executives dismissed
the illnesses as food poisoning.

BP bosses have told workers to report to BP clinics only and not to
visit public hospitals, where their numbers can be recorded by the
state.

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has said that without the benefit of
studies, or even knowing the chemical makeup of the Corexit 9500
dispersant (which its manufacturer calls a "trade secret"), scientific
opinion is divided on long-term health impacts to the region.

Workers in the Gulf are not receiving proper training or equipment,
says Mark Catlin, an occupational hygienist who was sent to the Exxon
Valdez site by the Laborers union.Equipment Lacking

BP has said it will provide workers with respirators and proper
training if necessary, but the company has yet to deem the situation a
health risk for workers. The Louisiana Environmental Action Network
(LEAN) provided respirators to some workers directly, but BP forbade
them to use them.

One rationale behind banning respirators is that they could increase
the likelihood of heat-related illnesses, but Kindra Arnsen, an
outspoken wife of a sick fisherman turned cleanup worker, points out
that many workers are fishermen accustomed to the Gulf heat who can work
safely given enough hydration and time for breaks.

Workers who question the safety of their assignments, choose to wear
their own safety equipment, or speak out about the risks are threatened
with losing their jobs, according to Arnsen and LEAN's executive
director, Marylee Orr.

Arnsen has also spoken out in fear for her community of Venice,
Louisiana. She describes illnesses and rashes her young children and
husband have suffered since the explosion and cleanup and says there are
days when officials tell residents to stay indoors.PR Power

The Center for Research on Globalization has speculated that banning
respirators and other protective gear for workers is part of BP's public
relations campaign to control how bad the disaster looks. This follows a
pattern of threatening reporters who get too close to the hardest-hit
areas, blocking media access to workers, exaggerating claims of
mitigation of the spill's impact, and using dispersants that make much
of the oil invisible.

Both the EPA and OSHA have criticized BP's safety plan, which allows
workers without respirators to stay in an area when air pollutants are
high, doesn't evacuate workers when conditions become unsafe, and
contains no upper limits of exposure to carcinogenic gases found in
crude oil.

Catlin, the occupational hygienist, says the protocol seems to be
written in a way that allows BP to continue operating under conditions
that, in other settings, would halt work.

Fishery industry organizations have joined with environmental groups
to demand respirators and other safety equipment and training for
workers. The coalition has launched bpmakesmesick.com, aimed at
pressuring the Obama administration to better enforce health codes
during the cleanup.(U.S. Coast Guard photo of contract workers cleaning up tarballs on a Texas beach by Petty Officer 2nd Class Prentice Danner.)