CRI听力: Collecting Hair to Stop Oil Pollution

Residents near to the Gulf of Mexico have come up with a hair-raising scheme to help clean up the huge BP oil spill. Salons are being inundated with customers keen to provide human hair to make special sponges for soaking up the slick - and even furry pets are getting in on the action.



An unexpected organic weapon might hold the key to stopping the massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, which is now estimated to cover about 9,500 square kilometers. That weapon is human hair.

In the Gulf Coast region, nearly every barbershop or salon is collecting waste hair and contributing it for use in the clean-up operation. Most barbers think the idea of using hair to collect oil is outlandish, but they're willing to give it a shot.

Aidan Gill is the owner of a barbershop.

"We're hoping it will help people feel part of helping, of being involved. At least doing something, not feeling completely helpless. And we will know, I suppose, in a month or so how effective this has been. But, if they can stuff it with golf balls they can stuff it with hair. So we're hoping it will be the biggest hair ball in the history of the world."

And it's not just humans who are reaching out to help. Man's best friend is putting a paw forward, too. Pet groomers across the country are collecting fur to use in the effort.

Animal fur, which is often curly and coarse, also attracts the oil and helps provide structure for oil mats when combined with human hair.

Enjoli Pannell collects a large garbage bag of fur every day or two and sends it to the effort. She says it's an honour to be part of the clean-up effort.

"Who would have known doing this would be such a great help? Knowing that we would be throwing all of this hair away. And knowing that there is nothing else that can be done to stop it. I mean, it's an honour."

No extensive studies have been conducted for the use of hair-stuffed "booms" or mats in collecting oil. But at the South Alabama University, geologist Doug Haywick says it might just work.

"Hair has been known to absorb some materials preferentially because it's got these long tubules and a certain amount of ridges to it that increase the surface area. So my understanding as to how this would work is that the higher the surface area given the material, the more likely it is going to absorb the oil."

Across town from the university, on the shores of the threatened Mobile Bay, dozens of volunteers are working feverishly in the only way they know to protect their cherished beaches and sea life. The event is known as a "Boom-B-Q."

After carefully sliding donated tights over the bottom of PVC pipes, they stuff hair and fur in from the top. After cramming the hair into the tights, volunteers tie off the ends and deposit them in a rapidly growing pile.

Locals admit the spill is likely to cause problems for years to come, but they are hoping to at least make some difference.

"I want to be able to where I am protecting our shores from this oil spill. It's obviously going to be completely devastating if it hits us. It's bound to hit us. But I want to be able to offer whatever I can to make sure that those effects of it hitting us are not going to be as great as they could be."

For CRI, I am Li Dong.