How does human hair help mitigate oil in the sea?

At first, the company Repsol claimed that the oil leak was due to an alarm that never came from the Navy. However, a report on the crude leak from the Supervisory Agency for Investment in Energy and Mining (Osinergmin) does not mention that the origin of the disaster was that. Despite the corporate abuse, civil society mobilized and collected, in different parts of the north, kilos of hair.

Until now, the company's defense maintained to the Prosecutor's Office that only a few gallons of crude oil had been spilled. However, the situation was more serious compared to what the corporation preliminarily presented: more than 1,739,000 m² of Peruvian sea were affected by toxic substances, as well as several animals were found to continue to be affected.

During Sunday, January 16, this oil spill spread to other beaches, such as Ancón, Santa Rosa and Chancay.< /b>

Using Hair To Soak Up Oil: How Did This Idea Come From?

Human hair, regarded as an effective and ideal product for oil cleanup, is natural, inexpensive, and renewable. It also biodegrades.

The person who discovered this phenomenon was the American hairdresser Phil McCrory, who watched on television how the hair of a sea otter was saturated with the oil spilled in the famous Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, for the year 1989.

So McCrory had a brilliant idea: “If all that oil could stick to otter hair, why not human hair?” Therefore, he carried out a home experiment using a stocking of his wife's and put the hair that he had cut to his clients. Immediately afterwards, he submerged him in a bathtub that had a mixture of water and oil inside, to verify that the water did indeed clean the black crude oil.

How much oil can be absorbed by hair?

Following this finding, several institutions, including NASA and the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, tested this technique.

According to the information provided by the BBC, NASA verified that, after using the human hair filter in water with oil, only 17 parts per million of crude remained in the Water. “Many will say that it is insignificant, but, in this scenario, I repeat again, everything is valid”, said the biologist and professor at the César Vallejo University (UCV) Paolo Amaya in conversation with The Republic.

On the other hand, the Australian university study revealed that human hair, having a high cuticle content, makes it “highly hydrophobic biosorbent”, with a highly porous shell that traps various types of contaminants.

Mayor of Pativilca asks to declare the north small an emergency: Oil is coming to Barranca

Boluarte announces that UN support for oil spill will arrive in the next few days

“From the PCM we have asked for international help. The UN has responded and that support is arriving in a few days,” said Dina Boluarte in statements to the press, who also announced that cooperation was also required from Ecuador and Venezuela, considered major oil exporters.

“A few days ago I reported that the closest countries are experts in managing oil or crude oil spills: Venezuela, because it is an exporter of large amounts of oil, and also Ecuador. I ask you to come as soon as possible because you can enter by sea and start cleaning up our coastline, ”he told the media.

What is the La Pampilla refinery, where is it located and what does it produce?

La Pampilla refinery was built in 1967 in Ventanilla and has been operating in the oil and gas sector ever since. Almost 30 years later, in 1996 —and during the privatizations applied by the Government of Alberto Fujimori—, the Spanish multinational, which bought it for 180.5 million dollars in the aforementioned year, was awarded 60% of the Peruvian refinery.

According to the information of the Iberian company on its website, La Pampilla was oriented "to the optimization of processes, to improve production capacity and to have new units that guarantee a safer, more reliable process and care with the environment".

The Osinergmin report does not consider “abnormal waves” as the cause of the spill

The Osinergmin technical report was prepared by its specialists, after they carried out an inspection on Monday, January 17, in the area of the oil spill, in Terminal Multibuoys No. 2, which is the exact point where the incident occurred.

According to the preliminary report of Osinergmin to which La República had access, the rupture of the oil discharge system on the high seas, due to a sudden movement of the tanker Mare Doricum, could have been the reason of the hydrocarbon leak. Osinergmin does not indicate that the unexpected rocking of the ship was the result of abnormal waves, because it is not ruled out that it could have been the result of some maneuver by the crew.

Disaster in Mauritius Island

It should be noted that it is not the first time that an oil spill has occurred in the world and human hair has been used to counteract it, since on July 25, 2020 on the Island Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean, suffered an ecological disaster after a Japanese ship, the MV Wakashio, ran aground on a coral reef off the coast of this island, which belongs to the African continent and nearly 1,000 tons of oil will be spilled into the sea.

Because of what happened, authorities from France and Japan sent cleanup teams; However, the inhabitants of the island also came together to face the disaster that threatened maritime life. To carry out this initiative, students, activists and civilians began to create floating protection barriers made of sugar cane, straw, socks and human hair.

Is the use of this practice viable in Peru?

According to the specialist, who also works as a university professor, what happened in Mauritius, with the oil spill on its shores , is similar to what happened recently in Peru "due to the environmental damage that we are describing." In that sense, there is a predisposition. "However, we are in the context of COVID-19, which makes it limiting," added Paolo Amaya.

On the other hand, the professor, who is also a professor, made some clarifications regarding the use of human hair, since “by itself (hair) does not absorb water, although it does absorb oils such as petroleum, which can adhere”< /mark>, he stated. Likewise, he emphasized the amount of hair to use according to the magnitude of the ecological disaster. “We are not talking that you are going to go with 20 kilos of hair, we are talking that it is according to the hectares that were affected”, he said.

Taking into account that 6,000 barrels of black crude were spilled into the Peruvian sea, Amaya suggested that a good amount should be used “so that it is at least efficient”.

There is strength in unity

The biologist said that the technique of collecting hair to clean the oil-contaminated sea can be managed. “Organized civil society may have this intention to improve and act. It can be done, of course it can. But in this pandemic, in a third wave scenario, I repeat again, it is limiting; However, let's not dismiss this great idea," he said in dialogue with La República.

To this end, in the words of Amaya, these actions must be coordinated with the support of the State and civil society, so that they can be carried out in an orderly and efficient manner, providing adequate support and infrastructure.

“We would have to convene diving centers, the same fishermen who can collaborate with their expertise also because it is an interesting human display. To achieve the amount of hair, point one. To place this infrastructure —because it becomes an infrastructure— it is not like a lock and you place it ”, he clarified to this medium.

Are there other natural materials from our ecosystem, apart from hair, that can be used to absorb oil?

When asked about the alternative of other natural elements for oil absorption and degradation, the biologist maintained that some bacteria do fulfill this function. “However, there is very little accessibility that can be had to them,” he acknowledged.

Use of hair for environmental purposes in Peru

At another time, the university professor argued that the use of human hair for environmental purposes in Peru, so far, has been carried out at the laboratory level. “Particularly, I have done the simulation through the laboratory with students within the formative research program. We carried out this simulation and we have been able to verify that it is valid to use this (hair). Of course, on a much smaller scale than what we are experiencing (oil spill in Ventanilla)”, he specified.

Do the conventional techniques used to remove oil from the sea have repercussions?

As mentioned by the expert, the techniques used by competent authorities to remove oil will generate a moderate repercussion to high. This is because “we can damage certain areas, certain habitats that may be nearby due to sudden movements (generated by this machinery) and are not contemplated in said environment”. Along these lines, Amaya exemplified it as follows. “It's the same thing if you want to rest and they put a noise above 50 decibels on you, you couldn't”, he said.

Reuse of hair in other countries

The reuse of hair in other countries has been articulated. According to Infobae, the Green Salon organization managed to bring together 600 British and Irish hairdressers in order to allocate the hair they cut to people who carry out spill cleanup work in the United Kingdom.

A similar initiative has been taking place in France since 2015 and brings together 3,000 hairdressers. Under the name of Coiffeurs Justes (Fair hairdressers), this association provides its members with paper bags to fill with hair waste and send them to the collection centers of said organization, to finally use it as a filler for anti-pollution sleeves, fertilizer and compost.

In this line, the Sustainable Salons Australia association, which has its own hair treatment plant, proposes to its members to change commonly used products that are polluting for other biodegradable ones.

Puente Piedra: people donate hair to create cylindrical oil-retaining meshes

A group of beauty salons has launched an innovative campaign to combat the oil spill in Ventanilla and thus not only save the flora and wildlife of the coast, but also to purify the water. It would all be about a discovery that has revealed that hair absorbs eight times more oil through a mechanism in which the filaments are encased in a mesh that is used as a cleaner.

This charitable movement is absolutely free and its purpose is to collect as much hair as possible so that it can be sent to Ventanilla.

The main requirement to apply to this initiative, which seeks to care for the environment, is to have hair that is more than 3 centimeters long. Both men, women, boys and girls are eligible to apply for this donation that will only last until Saturday.

Oil spill in Ventanilla: how much is 6,000 barrels in square meters equivalent to?

The engineer David Fairlie, in dialogue with La República, provided the estimates it made up to January 21. Along these lines, he first calculated the amount of affected area that Repsol stated: 18,000 square meters of sea, which is mathematically impossible. Said amount is equal to 0.0533m, that is, 5.33 cm thick.

On the other hand, the second estimate had to do with the height of the oil slick above the sea that can be seen from space, which is mostly 1µm (equivalent to one millionth of a meter). . So the 6,000 barrels (or 960 cubic meters) divided by 1µm would result in a total area of ​​960,000,000 square meters. In this second calculation, that would be the amount of sea that was affected.

So, as mentioned, the result is also equivalent to 960 square kilometers (53,333 times larger than initially reported). In other words, that is the maximum expansion figure for the sea affected if the barrels dumped are, as they have claimed so far, 6,000. If so, it would reach a little more than Chancay, in the Lima provinces, according to the expert.

Care that must be followed if you are exposed to areas contaminated by the oil spill, according to the Minsa

Given the danger it poses to the health of the population, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) provides a set of recommendations to the population, according to Alexis Holguín, director of Strategic Interventions in Public Health of the Minsa.

In this line, the official urged citizens not to go to the following spas due to the presence of the spilled oil, as well as nearby beaches.