You've got to be kidding, Don. Why don't you come on over here, maybe volunteer to help clean up along the Gulf, and you can see for yourself what's going on. And don't bother to wear a respirator. You deserve to be given proof that the fumes from the oil is making people sick. Maybe getting sick yourself is the only you're going to find out.

Every decision that BP has made (and I get most of my information from sources other than the US corporate media), has been specifically for the purpose of mitigating liability rather than mitigating harm, and they are causing far more harm in the process. And the government of this country has assisted them in doing that every step of the way. For instance, environmentalists have consistently said that using large amounts of chemical dispersants would compound the damage caused to the ecosystems in the Gulf rather than mitigating it. But BP prefers to spray the dispersants because their liability is measured by the barrel of oil spilled, and it's a lot harder to measure the amount of oil spilled if it's dispersed into underwater plumes (which BP tried to pretend weren't there until it became impossible to do) than if it's floating on the top where it can be skimmed off and measured. And our government said, fine. And when our government told them they had to switch to a less toxic brand of dispersant, they basically said too bad and kept on using the more toxic kind, which, by the way, is banned in your country. And what did the government of this country do about their refusal? Absolutely nothing. Because BP is allowed to do whatever the hell it wants.

And they're skulking around in the nighttime collecting and disposing of dead animals because it's a felony to kill protected and endangered species. Scientists want to know how many animals are being killed and they want to study the effects of this disaster, but BP is making it very difficult for them to do that, and all because it wants to mitigate its liability.

These are scientists and environmentalists who are saying these things.

And Riki Ott, a marine toxicologist who has nothing whatever to do with competing oil companies, and whose entire concern is the welfare of the people of the Gulf and the environment there, since her business as a fisherman in Alaska was destroyed by the Exxon Valdes spill, is saying all of the same things I have reported here.

You guys really are showing yourselves to be utterly lacking in compassion, and you really have no idea what you're talking about.
Here you go, Richard. Video evidence about BP not allowing the workers to wear protective gear...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#37744181