Contacts:
Earth Island Communications: communications@earthisland.org
Government Accountability Project: press@whistleblower.org
Berkeley, CA (June 23, 2025) — Earth Island Institute’s ALERT Project, Government Accountability Project, and allies filed a noncompliance complaint with the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The complaint requests the agencies issue citations and penalties to four dispersant manufacturers for not accurately reporting the detrimental harms their products can have on human and environmental health in their safety data sheets as part of right-to-know laws.
The four non-complaint companies are: COREXIT Environmental Solutions, Dasic USA LLC, TotalEnergies Petrochemicals and Refining USA, and Advanced BioCatalytics. The complaint demands that agencies enforce the content accuracy of these safety documents and stop the use of dispersants that were approved under false pretenses.
Safety data sheets are required by law as part of the information package for listing a product for use in oil spill response. EPA has listed three dispersants to-date on a new product schedule that will be published on December 12, 2025. These listings were made under EPA’s new truth-in-reporting rule regarding “impacts or potential impacts of the product to human health or the environment.”
The three new chemical dispersants — Dasic Ecosafe OSD (“EcoSafe”), Finasol OSR 52 IBC (“Finasol”), and “Accell Clean” DWD — contain the same hazardous surfactants (DOSS for dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate, Span 80, and Tween 80) as CorexitTM EC9500A, a product that was abruptly discontinued by the manufacturer before EPA’s new rules for truth-in-reporting went into effect. Two dispersants, Ecosafe and Finsasol, also contain the same known hazardous solvents (petroleum distillates, hydrotreated light) as Corexit 9500A.
ALERT Project director Dr. Riki Ott, the primary author of the noncompliance complaint, stated, “The new Corexit knockoffs contain identical key ingredients and are to be used for the same purpose in the same way during oil spill response as Corexit was. The industry even plans to use existing stockpiles of Corexit 9500A as a key feedstock for production of Ecosafe.”
Ott concluded, “It’s a no-brainer. It’s unrealistic to assume that these new products can be used safely, based on what we’ve been through with Corexit dispersants.”
Ott stated, “People have a right to know that dispersants are, by nature, deadly chemical mixtures that make oil spills even more toxic to people and animals. Dispersant manufacturers must accurately communicate the health risk to workers and the public. OSHA and EPA must enforce this right-to-know law.”
Lesley Pacey, senior environmental officer at Government Accountability Project, said, “Corexit has been proven to have deadly side effects within humans, but that won’t stop corporate greed from slapping a new label on it and sending it to a different country. The corporate shell game of rebranding these toxic chemicals under new names must not distract us from the fundamental truth that these dispersants should never be used again in our waters–or globally.”
During the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster response, unprecedented amounts of Corexit dispersants were sprayed onto the oil floating at the sea surface to break up the oil slicks. The dispersants combined with crude oil, and the resulting oil-dispersant droplets were driven underwater or into the air. Breathing or having skin contact with the fine droplets proved deadly. Studies conducted after the disaster found oil-dispersant mixtures caused more long-term diseases and cancers than oil alone to multiple body systems across species, including humans. The harm was linked to key ingredients that are used in all four of the dispersant products cited in this noncompliance complaint.
ALERT (A Locally Empowered Response Team) works with at-risk communities and allies to reduce toxic oil-chemical exposures and build a healthy energy future. ALERT Director, Dr. Riki Ott, is a leading expert on human health impacts from oil spill exposures. Ott chaired the 2023 Health and Safety Task Force chartered by Regional Response Team 10 and the Northwest Area Committee.
Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, Government Accountability Project’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, Government Accountability Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.