In the midst of all the non-news about WikiLeaks (rich people try to avoid paying taxes? REALLY?) and that Americans want to cut the deficit, but they don't want to cut a single government program and they don't want to pay higher taxes, it's easy to forget everything that's not the front page.
Remember that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year? We haven't heard anything in some time, so everything must be okay, right? Think again. Oil is still washing up on shore. And chemicals found in oil are turning up in the blood of some residents of the Deep South:
This month the Louisiana Environmental Action Network released the results of tests performed on blood samples collected from Gulf residents. Whole blood samples were collected from 12 people between the ages of 10 and 66 in September, November and December and analyzed by a professional lab in Georgia, with the findings interpreted by environmental chemist and LEAN technical adviser Wilma Subra.
Four of the people tested -- including three adults and the 10-year-old -- showed unusually high levels of benzene, a particularly toxic component of crude oil.
Public health in the South already blows. The last thing these people needed was one more toxin.
Of course, if you listen to Southern elected officials, everything's just fine.
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