Reading day after day about the devastation caused by the BP oil spill in the US Gulf, am I the only chemical obsessive wondering what "dispersants" these are, being used on the oil slick, and what "detergents" these are, being use to clean up the seabirds?
Maybe there's an idea for a Mr Nice/Mr Nasty story: bad oil versus good chemicals. Er, maybe not. Timing is everything.
Anyway, I see my Houston colleagues have been thinking along the same lines: http://bit.ly/cegKO9
Barbara,
The standard product for cleaning the feathers of oil-befouled birds is Dawn dishwashing liquid from Proctor & Gamble. Sales went through the roof during the Exxon Valdez clean-up, as I recall. For more info, visit the Saving Wildlife page on the Dawn website: www.dawn-dish.com.
Frank Zaworski