Resh­ma Ra­goonath

La Brea res­i­dents say they have reached their lim­it with "restau­rant food" and are des­per­ate­ly crav­ing their own home-cooked meals.They have not been able to cook for a month be­cause of the oil spill which be­gan wash­ing ashore at Cof­fee Beach on De­cem­ber 17.

Since the oil spill, Petrotrin has banned the use of open flames in the Cof­fee Beach area for safe­ty rea­sons, which meant cook­ing was out of the ques­tion. The state-run oil com­pa­ny has since been pro­vid­ing res­i­dents with break­fast, lunch and din­ner un­til clear­ance is giv­en to re­sume cook­ing.The res­i­dents could not cook their Christ­mas and New Year's Day meals be­cause of the ban.On Tues­day, as the oil spill en­tered its 28th day, 76-year-old Er­rol Lee, of Cof­fee Beach, La Brea, ad­mit­ted that he was miss­ing his own cook­ing.

"Yes, they cook­ing and bring­ing food for we, but I miss­ing my home cook food," he said as he shook his head.Moth­er of one Ter­ril­isa Mon­tano, 21, shared Lee's sen­ti­ments."I fed up, yes," she said.Mon­tano said while the food that res­i­dents are get­ting is good, she is "un­com­fort­able" with the meals."Half the things they bring­ing I doh eat. They bring­ing red beans– I doh eat that, black­eye beans–I doh eat that.

"When you go to col­lect, they ask you what you want. What could I want when they don't have what I eat? I fed up of this whole sit­u­a­tion."On Mon­day, Petrotrin pres­i­dent Khalid Has­sanali said the com­pa­ny had not lift­ed its ban on cook­ing at Cof­fee Beach and was await­ing clear­ance from the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to en­sure it was safe.

"We are very cau­tious and very care­ful in tak­ing some of these de­ci­sions (like re­sump­tion of cook­ing) when they im­pact on safe­ty, life safe­ty. There are cer­tain reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies we are con­sult­ing be­fore we make that an­nounce­ment," Has­sanali ex­plained.On Tues­day, a team of En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) com­pli­ance of­fi­cers vis­it­ed Cof­fee Beach to do air-qual­i­ty test­ing.

Lee said he was pleased with the progress of the clean-up, but would on­ly be ful­ly sat­is­fied when he is al­lowed to re­sume his dai­ly sea baths."Lord, I does miss my sea baths. I used to take my sea bath any time of the day or night. Here is the safest beach in the whole of Trinidad. It have no cur­rent and have no up and down in the wa­ter–it is pure lev­el, hard sand," Lee said."I feel is the sea that keep­ing me alive. I am 76 years old and I doh get up and run. I does swim out to the jet­ty and back. That is my ex­er­cise."

Corex­it con­cern

Petrotrin's use of the tox­ic dis­per­sant Corex­it 9500 dur­ing the ini­tial days of the oil spill has al­so left Cof­fee Beach res­i­dents con­cerned about the resid­ual health ef­fects from their ex­po­sure to the chem­i­cal.Corex­it 9500, which was used in the BP Gulf of Mex­i­co oil spill in 2010, has been found to have can­cer-caus­ing com­po­nents when mixed with oil. How­ev­er, the dis­per­sant is list­ed on the Na­tion­al Oil Spill Con­tin­gency Plan as an ap­proved dis­per­sant for oil spill clean-up.

On Tues­day, La Brea moth­er of one Tene­sha Mod­este, 27, said she is wor­ried not on­ly for her five-year-old son Is­rael, but the res­i­dents of Cof­fee Beach."They should do blood tests, check every­one in here for any ad­verse ef­fects," she said.

"I find it was un­safe for them to use that (Corex­it). They should have called every­body for a meet­ing and tell us what it was about. I am not wor­ried about my child and me, I am wor­ried about every­body here. It is most im­por­tant that they do tests not on­ly now, but reg­u­lar blood tests to check up on res­i­dents." Mon­tano added that the med­ical check ups now be­ing of­fered by Petrotrin should not cease af­ter a month, but should con­tin­ue for res­i­dents and chil­dren at least through­out the year.

Fish­er­man An­tho­ny Cyril, 59, and boat en­gine re­pair­man, Harold Bisses­sar, 75, agreed Petrotrin should be mon­i­tor­ing the health of res­i­dents."Since this oil spill, res­i­dents suf­fer­ing with a per­sis­tent dry cough and sore throat. The lit­tle chil­dren have vom­it­ing and di­ar­rhoea," he lament­ed.Bisses­sar said they were not giv­en med­ica­tion, but were checked out by Petrotrin med­ical staff sta­tioned at Cof­fee Beach and at the La Brea Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

He jok­ing­ly said for old sea­men like him, drink­ing some pun­cheon rum would prob­a­bly cut the "fumes off the chest" in no time.