BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion is an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scope. Worse yet, their response is compounding the situation through deception, obstruction, stonewalling, and the use of chemicals so toxic they were outlawed ten years ago in the United Kingdom. Twenty-one years ago, during cleanup of Exxon's spill in Alaska, these same chemicals were already known to be toxic. So toxic, in fact, that after witnessing its testing, Native tribes in Prince William Sound banned Exxon from using Corexit on their lands.

Yet, just like Exxon in 1989, British Petroleum insists on using Corexit with full knowledge of its lethality. And now, in defiance of the Environmental Protection Agency, they continue. Already cleanup workers are falling prey to illnesses caused by this toxic brew of crude oil and dispersants. Unfortunately, this is not new information; those who were exposed to Corexit during the Exxon Valdez cleanup were the sickest. Further, studies done in Prince William Sound on aquatic life proved acute toxicity...and BP knows it.

BP claims Corexit and other dispersants are both necessary and remain the best technology to clean up spills. They're lying on both accounts.

Dispersants hide the magnitude of the spill by breaking up and sinking the oil. So, while BP may benefit from the appearance of less oil on the surface, aquatic life 20 feet below are being assaulted by these toxic plumes, compounding an already horrific situation for wildlife.

Non-toxic alternatives for oil spill cleanup exist and these methods have been used successfully in numerous locations.  After the 1991 oil spill of the Mega Borg where millions of oil spilled in Galvaston Bay, Buck Wynne III (Texas Water Commissioner) said of the experiments with bioremediation "When you look at the tools we presently have to work with - booms, skimmers, dispersants and absorbents - bioremediation stands out above all of them."

The bioremediation benefits of fungi are well-documented. In Bellingham, Washington renowned mycologist Paul Stamets and state scientists remediated diesel-contaminated soil in eight weeks using oyster mushrooms. The non-toxic polymer Aqua N Cap, approved both by the EPA and the FDA and which adsorbs oil into a harmless rubbery mass for easy collection, is currently used in Saudi Arabia for oil spills on the sand and has been tested in Alaska's North Slope oil fields.

Why is the federal government allowing BP to use the Gulf of Mexico as their toxic experiment? Tell President Obama to stop the use of toxic dispersants now! Tell him to use proven alternatives safe to the environment and people.