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The last few weeks in the media world have been particularly damaging to BP. Despite their best efforts to muffle the continuing effects of the 2010 Deepwater Drilling Disaster - a muffling which has focused around a multi-million dollar, three-year, non-stop ad campaign, the poor little fellas are suffering from an assault by the truth of the matter.

On April 12, 2013, Bridge the Gulf and the Gulf Coast Fund convened a roundtable discussion with people working to bring attention to a public health crisis they have seen unfold since the BP disaster. Participants included a mother from a coastal Louisiana town overcome by chronic illness, a doctor, two scientists and a lawyer.

Three years since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico set off the worst oil disaster in United States history, BP Chief Bob Dudley says everything is fine in the Gulf of Mexico. But fishermen paint a very different picture – of struggling fisheries, untreated illnesses from oil and toxic dispersant, inadequate compensation from BP, and an uncertain future.

Last week, three delegates from the Gulf Coast attended BP’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in London and spoke about ongoing impacts of company's 2010 Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP board responded by painting a rosy picture of the Gulf Coast ("It's an ecosystem that's used to oil," said BP chief Bob Dudley) and defending the company's use of toxic dispersant (Dudley again: "...Corexit is about the same as dish soap").

On March 25, 1911, a fire caused by a wayward cigarette broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. The workers scrambled to find safety from the life-stealing smoke and flames, and horror descended as they faced the realization that managers of the factory had chained most of the exits to the building over worries of worker theft (a common practice of the day).



baratariaBy Eugene Hickman. My name is Eugene Hickman. My wife and I have been commercial fishermen living in Barataria, Louisiana for 25 years. I also am a United States Coast Guard licensed charter boat captain. I ran a charter boat for a company, in exchange for free housing and a boat slip for my commercial fishing boat on the company's property. On days I didn't have charters I would fish commercially.

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