dispersant

More dispersant may be required if the sea energy is low.

"Dispersants are not something we pull out of our holsters first."

"We have never before used dispersants in the quantity of this response," Allen told me.

The dispersant should ideally be applied two hours after discharge.

New technologies that improve the application of dispersants are being designed.

The workers told doctors they believe the dispersants being sprayed to break up the oil made them sick.

Because the dispersants were applied at depth, much of the oil never rose to the surface.

Chemicals from the oil and dispersant are believed to be the cause of these illnesses.

The toxins in the oil and dispersants can also kill the larvae.

Dispersants should not be used on gasoline or diesel spills for example.

They work best when the wind and seas are active, mixing the dispersants with the oil.

But in recent years, experts say, less-toxic dispersants have been produced.

Dispersant use was said to have stopped after the cap was in place.

Dispersants, he said, did not work except in keeping beaches clean, and they hurt the environment.

The ratio of dispersant to oil is typically 1:20.

There was criticism after the Valdez spill that dispersants were not used soon enough.

Dispersants are said to facilitate the digestion of the oil by microbes.

BP officials said they were injecting dispersants into the oil as it flows from the well.

The full impact of chemical dispersants on the underwater ecology is unknown.

"Dispersants are a valuable tool which the Americans have only come to realise," he said.

This is cause for great concern that the oysters are being killed by the toxins in the dispersant as well.

Second, skimmers and dispersants could not completely remove the oil being released from the well.

This led to a reformulation of dispersants to be more environmentally sensitive.

Today ecologists herald the use of chemical dispersants to break up oil spills.

Trace amounts of the chemicals used in dispersants are common, and levels for safety have been previously set.