Coast guard, 2 scientists discourage ‘hair booms’

Wait a minute, is it really a good idea to use hair?

Amid a lively campaign by Cebu government officials to collect hair to make oil spill booms, the Coast Guard and two university chemists said they don’t recommend using hair or feathers.

These materials don’t easily degrade and could add to sea pollution, according to two Iloilo-based professors from the University of the Philippines – Visayas.

Dr. Resurreccion “Rex” Sadaba, program manager of the Oil Spill Response Program of UP Visayas, and Prof. Ida Phila, who specializes in oil and water chemistry, were in Cebu yesterday to meet with the Coast Guard.

Sadaba instead encouraged using coconut husks and fibers placed in jute bags as eco-friendly improvised booms in the water.

(This is what several fishermen and residents in Cordova were doing as shown in CDN’s front page photo yesterday.)

The two experts were invited by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help find immediate, medium and long-term solutions to the spread of the oil spill from the sunken MV St. Thomas Aquinas which has reached the coastlines of Cordova town and Lapu-Lapu City.

Sadaba, in an interview, said feathers and hair contain “keratin” which does not decompose easily and may produce harmful chemicals in the water.

Sadaba and Pahila will inspect the water and coasts of affected barangays in Cordova with Coast Guard personnel today.

“With all the possible options, we are left with no choice. The best way now is to provide protection to the shoreline to prevent the oil from reaching the shoreline as the source is difficult to contain,” Sadaba said.

He said the remaining oil inside the sunken 2GO ship should be siphoned as soon as possible.

Commodore Frank Villalobos, spoksman of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Marine Environmental Protection Command said they have received donations of cut hair but are not using this to soak up the oil spill to avoid endangering marine life.

The Coast Guard has collected 117 drums of oil and 361 sacks of debris contaminated with oil in their 3-day clean up operation.

Floating debris is being picked out of mangroves by hand or using rakes to avoid damaging the mangroves, he said.

He lamented the lack of protective gear like gas masks, oil gloves and boots for volunteers.

Contact with oil-contaminated water can caused skin to feel itchy and hot. It also take three to four days to completely remove the grease from skin, he said.

The call for donations of cut hair, even pet hair, and stockings to make improvised oil spill booms has been widely publicized by the Cebu governor, and City Hall officials in Cebu and Lapu-Lapu city.

Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who recently gave a demonstration for the media on how to fill used stockings with hair, said the method was cleared with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 and the salvage firm of 2GO undertaking the oil spill cleanup.

He said they need a 15-kilometer long series of these barriers to prevent the oil from spreading to city shores.

He showed a YouTube video which popularizes the method also being used in civic campaigns in other countries. The hair boom was inspired by the invention of a hair stylist in Alabama, USA, who wanted to help in the 1989 oil spill in Alaska.

DEBATE

Actually a debate has been going on over the merits of a hair spill boom since the release of February 2010 field test results by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US Department of Commerce.

The NOAA’s website article “Using Boom in Response to Oil Spills” compares many types and mentions the risks of a hair boom quickly becoming heavy when soaked with water, and being left in the sea or breaking apart.

“In a February 2010 NOAA field test, commercial sorbent boom absorbed more oil and much less water than hair boom, which became waterlogged and sank within an hour. The NOAA forsees a risk that widespread deployment of hair boom could exacerbate the marine debris problem in the Gulf of Mexico, in that waterlogged hair boom would be especially difficult to retrieve and more likely to break apart.

It is possible that hair sorbents (absorbent pads) would be useful for collecting oil from drier areas such as rocks and artificial structures.”

The Los Angeles Times reported in May 21, 2010 that after a technical evaluation, the company BP announced it would not use hair booms in oil spill cleanup efforts.

“Our priority when cleaning up an oil spill is to find the most efficient and expedient way to remove the oil from the affected area while causing no additional damage. One problem with the hair boom is that it became waterlogged and sank within a short period of time,” said Charlie Henry, NOAA scientific support coordinator.

He urged individuals and groups to discontinue the collection of hair for hair booms.