GUIMARAS OIL SPILL, HAZARDS TO HUMAN BEINGS OF AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS FROM THE OIL SPILL

Statement of Cong. Roilo Golez, 27 August 2006

The government appears very slow in responding to the oil spill.

The Department of Health should have issued at the outset a public health statement on the serious health hazards to human beings of the oil spill. Exposure to the oil could result in inhalation or entering through the skin of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons especial benzene derivatives which could cause skin and lung cancer, birth defects and tumors, not just skin problems like dermatitis. This information has been released by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry, Division of Toxicology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services based in Atlanta, U.S.A.