A Cry For Help

This letter was written by a friend, in response to the fear she had about her husband's saftey. He, like many of us, went to work helping to do everything he could for the oil clean-up. He worked for BP. This was also the letter sent to Erin Brockovich before she came down to the coast. She has been censored many times now online, so here's one more venue to get the word out there.


(The Letter)
I am the wife of an offshore captain working the ground zero site of The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He is being exposed to Methane gasses, Toluene, Benzene and Hydrogen sulfide. As are all the other workers at the spill sites. These are Cancer causing agents and there are many, many heath risks. BP only yesterday started "fitting" my husband with an air quality suit. He has yet to recieve it. He has been exposed for a month to these gasses and can not say anything for fear of losing his job and tells me men are sick daily. I beg of you......

As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, the headlines paint a picture of executive greed, scientific studies ignored, and government regulations disregarded. We are reminded of the words of presidential candidate Obama, “Workers are the eyes and ears of enforcement.” I am writing you today to urge you to immediately pass meaningful whistleblower protections for employees of the offshore drilling industry.

On the day of the terrible disaster on the Deepwater Horizon rig, and on the days that led up to it, not a single employee in the offshore drilling industry was entitled to meaningful whistleblower protection. The key laws that govern offshore drilling: the Outer Continental Shelf Act, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and the Endangered Species Act, contain no whistleblower protections whatsoever.

Critical studies have confirmed that encouraging employees to blow the whistle is essential to prevent catastrophes, like the one we see unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, before they happen. Any successful reform effort must include protections for employees who dare to come forward and report the deplorable disregard for our environment and safety that has become the norm in the profit-obsessed offshore drilling industry.

Any new law must be retroactive, to ensure that workers who have the courage to testify against BP, Halliburton and Transocean and the corrupt regulators at the Minerals Management Service are encouraged to speak out and are fully protected.

You need only to look at the whistleblower provisions included in the recent Wall Street Reform bill, the Health Care bill, and the Stimulus bill as models for the type of legislation we need now.

I urge you to immediately enact broad, effective whistleblower protections that cover the entire offshore drilling industry and its regulators.

Please contact the attorneys at the National Whistleblowers Center at 202-342-1903 or whistle@whistleblowers.org for additional guidance on what is needed in this important law