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Oil in Florida: IMF-Geomar scientists said more oil each year enters the North Atlantic due to normal shipping traffic than has so far come from the spill. But the detergent is an unknown factor (Photo: Deepwater Horizon Response)

BP detergent could pose risk for EU coastlines

A leading scientist has warned that the detergent being used by BP to break up oil in the Gulf of Mexico could pose an environmental threat as far afield as the EU, after ocean currents bring residues to Europe next year.

Martin Visbeck, head of the Physical Oceanography unit at the IFM-Geomar institute in Kiel, Germany, told EUobserver on Tuesday (6 July) that the large amount of detergent - most of it a substance called Corexit 9500 - being pumped into the sea poses an unknown enviro...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

Oil in Florida: IMF-Geomar scientists said more oil each year enters the North Atlantic due to normal shipping traffic than has so far come from the spill. But the detergent is an unknown factor (Photo: Deepwater Horizon Response)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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