Photos: California Oil Spill Volunteers Appear Clueless About Petroleum Poisoning Surely the photos below do not lie about the total lack of safety precautions on the California shoreline where the latest oil spill has occurred. Santa Barbara beaches are now the site of two catastrophic oil spills, the first having occurred in 1969. That one was partially credited for the the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency so bad was the damage to the seashore and aquatic ecosystems. “The BP Gulf Oil Spill taught everyone that oil spills by their very nature can be extremely dangerous. The petrochemical toxicities both in the water and the ambient air ought to be taken very seriously. The crude petroleum VOCs (volatile organic compounds) alone can create especially perilous conditions to work in on a warm sunny day.” A lot has changed in the area of oil spill response since 1969. Certainly the BP Gulf oil spill was instrumental in showing the world how not to remed...