Some Gulf Coast residents are suffering from grim maladies months after they were exposed to the chemical oil dispersants sprayed by BP. “I started to vomit brown, and my pee was brown also,” one man told Al Jazeera. The chemicals that break up oil seem to also be good at breaking up human red blood cells, according to eyewitness reporters by local health care providers. “We have dolphins that are hemorrhaging,” said an EPA whistleblower.

Establishing a direct link between their symptoms and the chemicals dumped on the area is another matter, but residents say their symptoms disappear when they leave town and return when they come back.

“I’m thinking of moving to Costa Rica,” the manager of a seafood business told Al Jazeera. ‘When I leave here I feel better. When I come back I feel bad again. Feeling tired, coughing, sore throat, burning eyes, headaches, just like everyone around here feels.”

BP dispersants ‘causing sickness’ [Al Jazeera]

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