Reproductive health impacts of the BP oil spill

Last week at Truthout Lucinda Marshall raised the topic of the reproductive health impacts of the BP oil spill. We don’t know all the chemicals in the oil and dispersants, but what we do know already contains some pretty disturbing information. Benzene, a common ingredient in oil, may impair fertility. As for the dispersants:

Corexit, the dispersant that is being used by BP contains 2ButoxyEthanol, which “may damage the developing fetus. There is limited evidence that 2-Butoxy Ethanol may damage the male reproductive system (including decreasing the sperm count) in animals and may affect female fertility in animals,” according to the safety sheet.

Marshall followed up the original article with a blog post detailing new information that’s come out about the chemicals used. BP is still trying to reveal as little as possible, but there are definitely toxic substances included, some of which are known to have reproductive health impacts.
The effects of dumping toxins into the Gulf of Mexico are being felt first by people who live and work on the coast, including clean up workers. Folks in this area will likely feel the worst of the spill’s impact for a while. But toxins will of course move into our food after becoming part of the aquatic food chain. They’ll be spread through weather, too, including acid rain as Marshall points out.
It’s hard to overstate the devastating environmental impact of the BP spill. One of the results of the spill will be negative reproductive health impacts. I’m very grateful Marshall’s doing the hard work of raising this topic and trying to find answers. We need a lot more information from BP to understand the devastation they’ve caused. And we need to keep paying attention to every aspect of the spill and its aftermath, including the link here between environmental degradation and reproductive oppression, which is being caused by the spill.