Focus on oil dispersants clouded by secrecy

ProPublica digs into whether oil dispersants mitigate disastrous impacts from the massive oil spill in the Gulf or compound the disaster.

One sentence will catch the eye of transparency-minded readers:  “The exact makeup of the dispersant is kept secret under competitive trade laws.” (H/T Newspaper Association of America‘s Sophia Cope.)  Given the scope of the environmental and economic disaster unfolding in the Gulf, and the uncertainty about whether dispersants are doing more harm than good, the public has a right to know all that science can tell us about this particular strategy.