BP CEO Attributes Oil Spill Cleanup Workers’ Illness To Food Poisoning

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bp-ceo-attributes-oil-spill-cleanup-workers-illness-to-food-poisoning/

BP CEO Attributes Oil Spill Cleanup Workers’ Illness To Food Poisoning
by Frances Martel | 9:33 am, May 31st, 2010

The BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is an incalculable tragedy and there is absolutely no silver lining about it. But if there were anything to at least laugh at, bitterly, in this mess, it’s BP CEO Tony Hayward floundering in the media spotlight, with every word spoken making his company more unlikeable. Yesterday’s Hayward PR home run: oil workers were not getting sick because of the toxicity of the oil and BP’s dispersants, they have simply gotten food poisoning.

Hayward responded yesterday to reports that workers have had to be hospitalized for dizziness, headaches, nasal irritation and other respiratory symptoms. While he admitted that he didn’t think they were faking it, and didn’t exactly deny the oil or the dispersants were toxic, he said he believed food poisoning was a “really big issue” and the likely cause:

“I’m sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it had anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning, or some other reason for them being ill. You know, there’s a– food poisoning is a really big issue when you’ve got a concentration of this many people in ten pre-cabs, ten pre-accommodations. It’s something we have to be very, very mindful of. It’s one of the big issues of keeping the army operating. Armies march on their stomachs.”

Apparently in Tony Hayward Land, food poisoning of cleanup crews is a “big issue” just like the Gulf of Mexico is a “very big ocean.” At least after his comments CNN gives viewers get the satisfaction of knowing that their medical experts are not buying nasal irritation as a symptom of food poisoning, though the report doesn’t get any more cheerful as CNN correspondent Elizabeth Cohen relays that BP is not getting the crews gas masks, because they don’t believe that they need them.

Video of Hayward’s comments and CNN analysis below:

Thanks for the thread, charles.

food poisoning generally causes GI tract disorders, not nosebleeds and URT symptoms. You know, like :puke: :puke: :puke:

Un effing believeable.

“As you know, the heat and humidity in Louisiana can be challenging. Fortunately, everyone is fine.”

Watch it here:

http://dvidshub.net/?script=video/video_show.php&id=86377

Our government and BP are on one side of the issue, doctors and scientists on the other.

are there no levels these pigs will not go to?????????

I suspect there'll be a lot of "food poisoning" going around that area in the next few months (or years).

It won't compare with the poisoning the wildlife will be suffering, though.

the PR company for him and BP.

Do they really think we are that f*cking stupid. 'Armies march on their stomachs.'

:mad: :puke: :wtf: :argh: :grr:

From May 5:

Who's Flackin' Who? TPM's Tour Of The Oil Spill Flack Universe- Who's On Damage Control?

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x534106#top

are they really 'human?' I don't see how they can look at themselves in the mirror.

And Podesta? WASF.

He is no help. All he does is try obfuscate and lie his way through this. He needs to be replaced. He has looked at this as a public relations problem from the beginning and doesn't seem to grasp the enormity of the disaster at his hands.

After trial, hang him, then slather his body with tar (or just dip him in the gulf) and put him on a gibbet at the mouth of the Mississippi as a warning to other oil companies.

They know they don't have to - modern PR/marketing techniques have made shamelessly transparently lying and then getting away with it even after it has been debunked hundreds of times a feature of modern life.

I would say the Aristocracy may respect us easants less than they have since the 1500s, at this point.