518 Oil, Illness, and Human Rights
If you clean up an oil spill, protect yourself!
Whether you and your community have to clean an oil spill on your own or
are paid by an oil company to clean an oil spill, you should know:
• Oil is always toxic. Touching or breathing it can lead to serious health
problems (see page 506).
• Solvents used to clean oil are also toxic and can lead to serious health
problems (see page 516).
• High-pressure hoses commonly used to spray oil off of rocks cause oil to
vaporize (become a gas) and make the oil easy to breathe in. This can
lead to problems of the throat and lungs.
• The company responsible for the spill and for cleaning it up should
provide you with protective clothing, including a body suit, gloves, boots,
respirator, safety glasses, and a head covering (see Appendix A).
• Working long hours in oil-contaminated water or being exposed to
solvents can cause serious health problems. It is best to work fewer hours
and to rest away from toxic fumes between work shifts.
Make a safety plan for emergencies
If you live where there is oil drilling or refineries, work with your community
to make a safety plan to protect everyone’s health in case of emergencies such
as flares or spills. (To learn what a safety plan includes, see page 545.)
Map your community
Part of a safety plan is to know where problems may break out and where
the resources are to prevent and recover from an emergency. Mapping the
community can help.
Together with others from the community, draw a map of where you live.
Include oil wells, drilling sites, pipelines, waste pits, refineries, and other
sources of pollution. Also, include
places where you get water, grow
or collect food, and keep animals,
as well as community resources.
Talk about where there
have been spills, accidents,
or pollution in the past.
What was the impact? Mark
the map where you have seen
the effects of oil spills. Then
make a list of your available
resources and a plan for
how to use them in case
of an emergency.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012