As they struggle to plug a leak from a ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and federal officials are also engaging in one of the largest and most aggressive experiments with chemical dispersants in the history of the country, and perhaps the world....
Although the Nalco Company, which makes the Corexit dispersants, posted copies of the safety documents for two of its dispersants online Wednesday, some of the ingredients are listed as “proprietary.”
link: In Gulf of Mexico, Chemicals Under Scrutiny - NYTimes.com
Corexit, the dispersant in question, may not be used in British waters because it flunked British tests for safety along rocky shorelines. It did pass, however, tests for offshore safety (whatever those tests were - the salient point, however, is that the British government actually regulates and requires testing of this kind of stuff whereas here we just leave it all up to British freaking Petroleum).
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