" I never saw a claim at all for injury due to Valdez. And I worked there from 1995 through 1997"
OK, I would estimate that in that time period you would have mostly issues surrounding the oiled communities or fishermen's claims
There were some lawsuites in earlier years. Some even won, but I believe the cases were 'sealed' or were supposed to be. I think since Exxon has not even put up a deposit for the lawsuits with fishermen and the punitive damages they are appealing, workers may think there is no hope of winning a suit, and what's the point?
"Frankly, in all the litigation, and through all the controversy after the spill, nobody has ever asked the question: What about human health?" said Dr. John Middaugh, Alaska state epidemiologist.
milestone article about workers
Riki Ott, PHd in biology and also a fisherwoman from Cordova wrote a book that came out not long ago. If you would be interested in reading it, I will see if I can get you a copy.
Sound Truth and Corporate MYTH$:
It is my personal opinion that until we know what has happend health-wise to the workers of the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup, and those who were close to them (second hand solvent exposure) and a true epidemiology picture of what happened to the health of citizens of Valdez after 1989 ... we will never learn the truth about the exposure to oil and the exposure to 2-butoxyethanol in Inipol EAP 22 (now shelved) and Corexit (used since 1972 until the present day).
I also firmly believe that had Exxon stopped the cleanup experiment and announced that 2-butoxyethanol was harming workers .... it would not have been continued to be in such widespread use, and that there may have never been a 'gulf war syndrome.'
Although military people have many exposures to many things and have health damage from an assortment of things, the one that harmed them the most, the one that is a 'match' for the CFIDS they suffer, etc is the effects of the flu-causing chemical, 2-but0xyethanol. AND there are also many different ways to be exposed to this chemical: it is in gun cleaners, jet fuel, paints, cleaning products of all kinds, and somehow I think it is in explosive vapors ... with fumes in one's eyes as the worst exposure.
One EVOS worker of bioremediation workers shared with me that Exxon had a ship nearby for the EXXON observers of the bioremediation experiment. Exxon thought they could protect their own, but they could not. The chemical could blow in their direction and expose them also.