‘Crude Awakening’ examines effects of BP oil spill cleanup

While lots of attention has been focused recently on a “60 Minutes” report on BP’s claims of fraud in the settlement over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a report on HBO’s “Vice,” airing over this week, sharply criticizes the company’s use of chemical dispersant in its cleanup efforts.

“Crude Awakening,” which premiered Friday (May 16), examines the effects on the chemical Corexit on everything from the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico and the seafood currently being harvested from it to the health of the citizens of the Gulf Coast region still grappling from the aftermath of the oil spill.

Here’s the synopsis:

“More than 200 million gallons of oil surged into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. To combat the worst environmental disaster in American history, BP and the Coast Guard dumped nearly 2 million gallons of a chemical dispersant called Corexit into the Gulf. But instead of helping clean up the spill, Corexit made things worse. The seafood industry is decimated, and clean-up workers have developed debilitating respiratory and central nervous-system problems, along with skin rashes. Scientific studies have proven that Corexit exposure kills cells in the human airway, and makes oil 52 times more toxic to the environment. Four years later, mass quantities of oil still wash ashore, and our government has done nothing to ban this dangerous chemical dispersant. Shane Smith went to Louisiana to report on the lasting effects of the BP oil spill.”

The episode airs again at 5 p.m. CDT Sunday (May 18).