Companies increase aid to Gulf region

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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has wreaked an unimaginable amount of havoc on the Gulf of Mexico’s environment and local economy, but some government officials are now questioning whether the chemicals said to be helping clean up the spill may be doing additional damage.

Spurred by the spill, the Senate oversight subcommittee of the Committee on Environment and Public Works convened a hearing this week to discuss the use and effects of dispersants in oil spills, the New York Times reports. While Republicans were ready to accept the chemicals as an effective cleaning and containment method, Democrats had their doubts.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and the subcommittee’s chairman, called the use of such levels of the chemicals "something of a grand experiment" and continued to question officials, the paper writes.

In examining Paul Anastas, assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the head of its Office of Research and Development, and David Westerholm, director of the Office of Response and Restoration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Senator Whitehouse found that the EPA lists dispersants for use because they meet criteria for effectiveness, not toxicity, the Times reports.

"I can’t think of another circumstance in which a regulatory agency approves something for use without actually coming to a formal decision that it is safe to be used," Senator Whitehouse said.

Additionally, any tests for toxicity the EPA has performed have evaluated the immediate threat, not the potential for long-term effects that could disrupt ecosystems of animals and, possibly, humans many years from now.

So far, the Deepwater Horizon spill has spewed a record of nearly 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, prompting the use of 1.8 million gallons of dispersants, another record-breaking amount.

Many Gulf fisherman are calling for tougher tests to determine whether seafood has been contaminated not just by oil, but by dispersants, the Associated Press reports. An FDA spokeswoman replied that government scientists are now developing a tissue test in addition to the already-used "sniff test."

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