Last week the House passed the Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act of 2010, a bill that amends the post-Exxon Valdez legislation in order to fund research on oil spills.

As part of this bill, Rep. Alan Grayson attached two amendments to, in his words, “expand research on the effects of these spills on the human beings assigned to clean them up.” Critically, the amendments target both oil and dispersants — ingredients in the toxic stew affecting BP Oil Disaster cleanup workers.

The government command for the BP oil disaster announced last night its “interim guidance” for recovery worker health and safety, including the (limited) use of respirators. The report was actually released by OSHA and NIOSH, the CDC’s workplace safety group, almost one week ago.
These recommendations come after more than 28,000 people signed Firedoglake’s petition to BP & OSHA demanding workers have access to respirators.