ALERT Project

Honoring those impacted by the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and persisting against Oil-Dispersant Manufacturers.

April 19, 2026 –– This is the question that Agent Smith, the rogue computer virus bent on destroying the real world, asks the protagonist Neo Anderson who is trying to free humanity from the AI-controlled simulation in the film, “The Matrix.” The answer is at the end of this blog… but take the Red Pill and stick with me here as we dive down the rabbit-hole.

It’s been nearly a year since ALERT and allies filed its noncompliance complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) against four dispersant manufacturers. We find ourselves in an isolated program for storing deviant human minds – revealed as a subway station, called Mobil Ave., an anagram for limbo in the film. Are we trapped? Or will the crumbling code of our government infrastructure find a way out?

Despite lengthy government shutdowns, we find OSHA is still pressing forward with its investigation into whether the four dispersant manufacturers (the Machines) failed to report known or anticipated human health impacts of their products in their Safety Data Sheets, as we claimed in our noncompliance complaint. The OSHA investigation was not deterred by the manufacturers’ blanket denials of any known or anticipated human health impacts from dispersant use. These denials were to be expected – it’s déjà vu!

Déjà vu

Déjà vu in the Matrix is a glitch, indicating where the Machines changed something within the simulated reality. So, what changed? The formulations of the deadly Corexit dispersants into more benign products – or so the Machines would have us believe.

After the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil-chemical disaster, scientists causally linked a few of the chemical ingredients in Corexit dispersants with long-term harm to multiple body systems across species – dolphins, humans, fish, birds, sea turtles, crabs, and more. Scientists concluded that Corexit dispersants increased the toxicity of oil to humans and wildlife alike. In 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (driven by a citizens’ lawsuit) changed its regulations to limit use of known toxic dispersants like Corexit. This led the Corexit owner to discontinue its product line while three other manufacturers each developed an alternative but chemically similar “new” dispersant product.

How similar? Each “new” dispersant contains at least three of the four common killer ingredients – two contain all four common ingredients – that were causally-linked with toxicity and long-term harm in Corexit. The manufacturer of “EcoSafe” (Dasic USA LLC) even claims its product can be formulated from the global Corexit stockpiles that remain after the Corexit manufacturer discontinued its product line. These three manufacturers want OSHA and us to take the Blue Pill and stay in their simulated reality, that is, to presume these rebranded dispersants can be safely used for oil spill response – so oil drilling can continue unabated. They claim the absence of available or relevant data, regarding health impacts to humans and wildlife, means the products are safe to use.

The oil-chemical industry’s Machines all play by the same glitchy program that reformulates known toxic products into allegedly safe ones. With dispersants, reformulation led to rebranded versions of recombined ingredients. With plasticizer additives in children’s toys and baby bottles, reformulation led to structurally related, chemical alternatives under the same product brand. In the latter case, there are endless structural iterations of, for example, the deadly phthalates and BPA that were banned in the European Union, the U.S. and other countries. These reiterations are all presumed safe until proven otherwise – which, they usually are, but this takes years and resources to do. (https://echochildren.org/)

The dispersant manufacturers didn’t bother with alternatives for the common toxic ingredients. All three “new” dispersants contain the same common deadly ingredients in Corexit. They are rebrands – knockoffs – of the deadly Corexit. Based on the available and anticipated data, these Corexit rebrands cannot be presumed safe.

So Why Do We Persist?

Because we choose to.

ALERT wishes to acknowledge today – the 16th memorial of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster – the hundreds of families across the Gulf Coast and beyond who have lost loved ones or watched them suffer from life-diminishing diseases initiated by exposure to this toxic oil-chemical disaster. We honor the lives of those who passed quickly, like the 11 workers who died in the oil rig explosion, and those who died slowly over the years like oil spill response contractor Frank Stewart. We honor those who presently suffer, like Lori Bosarge, from the deadly reach of this disaster.

We hope OSHA ends this glitch and releases us all from limbo at Mobil Ave. OSHA just needs to take the Red Pill, so they can see the human consequences of all the available data that we supplied in our noncompliance complaint. Those studies are literally based on tens of thousands of human lives and stories. Based on this insight, OSHA can find, as we did, that the dispersant manufacturers are in noncompliance with the Hazard Communication standard. By forcing the manufacturers to admit the potential deadly consequences of their rebranded products, states and decision-makers like the U.S. Coast Guard just might decide not to use these products for oil spill response. Then again, there’s the choice: the red or the blue pill?

In solidarity,
Riki Ott

P.S. In case you are wondering, the Sentinels in this analogy are the mindless, heartless squids that swarm to protect the Machines, also known as the Wealth Defense Industry or the Corporate Defense Industry – the swarm of lawyers, consultants, accountants, and more who get paid millions to shield their clients’ trillions.