Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

by Riki Ott

Dr. Riki Ott exposes the profound legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how readers can help reshape our global energy future.
The author chronicles the long-lasting environmental harm to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and investigates the health problems suffered by many cleanup workers. Exxon's spill provided a portal to understanding a startling oil is much more toxic than we previously thought. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ frames the larger story of discovery of the truly toxic nature of oil. This book shows how one particular fraction of crude oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, may well be the new DDT of the 21st century. In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 22 PAHs in crude oil as "persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) pollutants." Sharing this list of extreme human health hazards are the more commonly known pollutants--mercury, lead, dioxin, PCBs, and DDT. The latter are all highly regulated chemicals and some, such as DDT and PCBs, have been banned in the United States. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ traces 15 years of lingering harm to humans and wildlife from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It reveals how corporate greed, government short-sightedness, and manipulation of the truth and the media have kept the public from learning the deadly nature of PAHs. The author provides relevant information and practical recommendations for people and policy-makers at this critical juncture in the history of civilization. This book will inspire people to reduce their own consumption of fossil fuels and, in so doing, help permanently shift society to a clean energy future.

561 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

A commercial salmon "fisherma'am," Dr. Riki Ott (PhD in marine biology) experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spilland chose to do something about it. Ott retired from fishing and founded three nonprofit organizations to deal with lingering harm. She is the author of Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ and Not One Drop. Riki lives in Cordova, Alaska."

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to take RFK, Jr. down a notch whenever I can, yet I do give him props for this quote from the cover of this paperback edition:

"This book doesn't just change our view of the Exxon Valdez spill; it forces us to dramatically reassess the risks from petroleum and the enormous costs that industry is imposing on our health and planet."

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
President, Waterkeeper Alliance

This book exposes the long-lasting environmental damage caused by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and chronicles the health problems experienced by cleanup workers. Author Dr. Ott, a marine biologist, shows how the event provided a "portal to understanding a startling truth: oil is much more toxic than we previously thought". Specifically, she details the harmful effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a component of crude oil that the EPA designated as "persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic" in 1999. The book reveals how corporate greed, government negligence, and media manipulation concealed the full truth about the deadliness of PAHs. It calls for people and policymakers to inspire a shift toward a clean energy future.

See also, Oil Biodegradation and Bioremediation: A Tale of the Two Worst Spills in U.S. History.

I like how this book urges us to not only learn the details of this event specifically and unmanaged corporate responsibility, but to bring suspicion against how statistics are framed and by what experts. Two books often mentioned include:

1. Trust Us, We're Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future
2. How to Lie with Statistics

It is very sad that so many people employed in cleanup with unproven techniques creating health-sapping aerosols and using dangerous solvents endured medical setbacks the rest of their lives that were generally not acknowledged.

Chronic Symptoms (1990 to 2003)

Nagel traveled in Central America off and on for the next three years. His health started to deteriorate. He said, "It seemed like every time there was a flu going around, I always got it and it stayed with me longer than anyone else." He was in Costa Rica in 1994 when he became very, very ill. He checked into a hospital and discovered he had cancerous tumors in his stomach and intestines. During emergency surgery, part of his stomach and intestines were removed.

When he was in Portland, Oregon, teaching a Hazwoper class on early response and hazardous waste handling, a friend jokingly asked him if he would like some Inipol? Nagel responded, "Exxon or French?" His friend handed him the original MSDS on Inipol from the French company, Elf Aquataine. Nagel was stunned-the French MSDS showed that Inipol caused cancer in laboratory mice; the MSDS supplied by Exxon in 1989 did not. Exxon had supposedly altered the chemical composition of the product, however, the captain realized the time frame between product testing and approval was probably too short to determine if the revised product caused cancer in mice.

Some have published acquired knowledge from this.

Dr. Miller collaborated with Nicholas Ashford, PhD, a professor of Technology and Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he teaches courses in environmental and occupational health law and policy. They published a groundbreaking book, Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes (John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1991), which they revised in 1998. In it they explain their view that chemical sensitivity is not just a single syndrome, but rather a whole new class of disease, which they describe as "toxicant-induced loss of tolerance" or TILT. This phrase takes into account the fact that caffeine, alcoholic beverages, various drugs, and foods can trigger "chemical" sensitivity symptoms in individuals who already have lost their natural tolerance through an acute chemical exposure or other initiating event.

By the late 1990s it was understood that the initiating event for chemical sensitivity, or more broadly TILT, can occur either as a intense abrupt event like a pesticide spill or as an intermittent repetitive exposure (Wilkinson 1998). The EVOS cleanup workers had it both ways-the chemical exposure was intense, but also repetitive, intermittent for those who took breaks or were otherwise in and out of oiled areas, and prolonged for individuals who worked for months on the beaches. Those who studied TILT found that the nervous system, quite independent of the immune system, has the capacity to "amplify responses to stimuli that are perceived as dangerous to the organism" (ibid., 59). Once the stimulus is stopped, the nervous system initiates a process of amplification, so that the next time the per-son encounters that stimulus, or anything that can similarly trigger the nervous system, even at a much lower dose, there is an amplified or exaggerated response.

This process is known as "limbic kindling," and it is the leading theory among environmental medicine doctors to explain the etiology or cause of chemical sensitivities and other TILT symptoms (Ashford and Miller 1998; Kilburn 1998; Rea 1995; Wilkinsen 1998). Limbic kindling is a type of epilepsy that involves abnormal firing of the limbic system-the part of the brain with a direct connection to the nose. The olfactory system is the normal pathway for airborne chemicals to interact with the brain; the limbic system is where the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems interact. Chemical-induced seizures cause the amygdala in the limbic system to misfire signals to the hypothalamus, which communicates with both the olfactory and limbic systems, regulating chemicals in the entire body.

The hypothalamus governs body temperature, reproductive urges and functions, metabolism, and even aggressive behavior. It also influences some immune system functions. Disrupting the hypothalamus-with any of a variety of chemicals once a person loses his or her initial tolerance-can create havoc in many different parts of the body and lead to the multiple system dysfunction experienced by people with severe chemical sensitivities such as La Joie.

Pesticides and solvent exposures are known to cause or facilitate limbic kindling. The EPA lists 2-butoxyethanol as one of the pesticides it has tested (CAS number 111-76-2) and it lists this chemical as one of the ingredients to avoid in its Janitorial Products Pollution Prevention Program. The EPA web page states products with the listed ingredients "pose very high risks to the janitor using the product, to building occupants, or to the environment." Comments under chronic effects for 2-butoxyethanol list reproductive and fetal damage, liver and kidney damage...

I did not recall a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdez_... Blockade that became a turning point of civil disobedience for getting the harmed fishing communities greater attention.

Prince William Sound fishermen, facing financial ruin after collapses of herring and pink salmon populations, blockaded Valdez Narrows from August 20 to 23, 1993, to focus attention on the ailing Sound. As a result of this blockade, scientists funded through the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council conducted three seminal ecosystem studies and determined that very low levels of oil were much more toxic to fish and wildlife than previously thought. Similarly, medical doctors have found oil (PAHs) also poses human health risks.

The book lists several changed paradigms as outcomes of this event.

Physical shoreline habitat

OLD PARADIGM: Oil that grounds on shorelines other than marshes dominated fine sediments will be rapidly dispersed and degraded microbially...

EMERGING APPRECIATION: Oil degrades at varying rates depending upon environment ... and photolysis retaining contamination ... with subsurface sediments physically protected from disturbance for years.

Oil toxicity to fish

OLD PARADIGM: Oil effects occur solely through short-term (~4 day) exposure to water-soluble fraction (1-2 ringed aromatics dominate) through acute narcosis mortality at parts per million concentrations.

EMERGING APPRECIATION: Long-term exposure of fish embryos to weathered oil

(3-5 ringed PAHs) at parts per billion concentrations has population consequences through indirect effects on growth, deformities, and behavior with long-term consequences on mortality and reproduction.

Oil toxicity to seabirds and marine mammals

OLD PARADIGM: Oil effects occur solely through short-term acute exposure of feathers or fur and resulting death from hypothermia, drowning, or ingestion of toxics during preening.

EMERGING APPRECIATION: Oil effects also are substantial (independent of means of insulation) over the long term through interactions between natural environ mental stressors and compromised health of exposed animals, through chronic toxic exposure from ingesting contaminated prey or during foraging around persistent sedimentary pools of oil, and through disruption of vital social functions (care giving or reproduction) in socially organized species.

Indeed generally it was observed that a lower level of toxicity is related to PAHs.

When he called Short for advice, the chemist suggested that he not re-coat the rocks with oil. Instead, Short suggested that he just expose the second batch of herring eggs to water flowing over the older, more weathered oil from gravel that had already been flushed with water during the pervious year's experiment. Short told Carls that the pink salmon researchers were finding effects on embryos around one part per billion PAHs-and that the larger PAHs, the ones that weathered out last into the water, were more harmful to salmon embryos than the aromatic hydrocarbons in the WSF. Carls decided to take a chance. He exposed the second batch of artificially fertilized herring eggs to initial PAH levels in the water of less than one part per billion, a fraction of the level supposedly "safe" for marine life. The data were crystal clear-and astonishing. Larvae exposed to oil from the first experiment had twisted spines, misshapen jaws, and other skeletal deformities as well as genetic damage (Carls, Rice, and Hose 1999). The tiny fish had metabolic problems and tissue damage as well, a frequent problem being severe "ascites" or swollen bellies caused by retained water. The balloon-bellies restricted blood flow to tissues and organs, stunting growth and development. Larvae exposed to oil had trouble swimming, they were a smaller size because of premature hatch, and many more died than larvae not exposed to any oil. Carls detected harmful effects in larvae exposed to initial PAH levels that were 30 times lower than the federal water quality standard. Results from the second batch of eggs were generally identical, but more frightening. The more weathered oil was much more toxic-larvae suffered harmful effects at initial PAH levels that were 750 times lower than the federal standards. ...

Carls realized that state and federal laws regulating oil pollution are not at all protective of aquatic life because the laws are based on the wrong oil fraction! The Auke Bay Lab fish research proved large PAHs are much more deadly to precious fish embryos than smaller aromatic hydrocarbons in the WSF; however, the laws based on 1970s research treat the large PAHs as if they are harmless.

In addition, petroleum pollutants proved to be more pervasive and persistent in the environment.

What they found surprised them. Poking around with their shovels in the quadrants and transects dictated by their study design, they discovered liquid oil at fifty-three of the ninety-one beaches. The oil was buried just below the surface and it welled into the pits, leaving a rainbow sheen on the water surface. Most of the subsurface oil was in the mid-intertidal zone-well below the bathtub ring, the visual stain in the upper intertidal area, and directly within the richly productive biological region.

Using forensic chemistry, Short analyzed dozens of typical sediment samples and determined that 90 percent of the surface oil and 100 percent of the subsurface oil was from the Exxon Valdez (Short et al. 2004). The remaining surface oil was from the Monterey (California) Formation-heating oil spilled during the 1964 earth-quake when storage tanks ruptured in Valdez. Rice and his team estimated the total beach area contaminated by residual Exxon Valdez oil, counting both surface and subsurface deposits, was twenty-eight acres (ibid.). They reasoned this was a low-end estimate; it did not include the lower intertidal zone where they had not sampled very extensively because they had not expected to find oil there. Instead they found this was where more of the buried oil was located. They conservatively estimated the weight of the intertidal residual oil was over 56 tons (122,320 pounds), but felt a more realistic number was probably twice that (ibid.).

While this may not seem like much in the greater scheme of things, anyone who has struggled with cancer knows it doesn't take much to threaten life. Further, the subsurface oil is harbored in the biological equivalent of a critical organ in the Sound-marshes and gravel beaches. As Phil Mundy, the science director of the EVOS Trustee Council told Meg McKinney in an April 2004 interview on KCHU public radio, these areas are relatively rare in the steep, rocky-walled fjord system and they are critical habitat for wildlife.

The stunned team mulled over their discovery. How could hundreds of scientists completely have missed the mother lode of oil for twelve years? This was not oil that had migrated down slope from the and it was consistently there, buried in the middle intertidal zone, upper to the lower intertidal over time-there was too much of it low

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

An honest account from those who experienced/are experiencing the fallout of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. Years of interviews and research went into this work by marine toxicoligist and resident Cordovan Dr. Riki Ott.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall it is a great book. I think it was a little too long winded for its own good but I got the overall message. Learning about the effects of oil on humans was disturbing.Then to read what oil does to other species is shocking as well.