Appeal for hair to soak up spill
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The tactic to use hair in soaking up oil spill were earlier used in Mexico, the US and Philippines
Concerned residents have pitched in to clear up the oil spill at Samet Island and are now campaigning for donations of hair to soak up the spill.
The call was spread over social networks including Facebook and Twitter for barbershops and beauty salons to donate the hair.
The hair would be stuffed into nylon stockings to form a “hair boom” and placed in areas of the spill to soak it up.
It is reported that each pound of hair is capable of absorbing as much as a gallon of oil. Wool, animal hair and fur coats could be used for the purpose.
The campaign also calls on people to visit the affected sites to help clean up the spill.
Hair has been used in several countries to help soak up oil spills including the US, Mexico and Philippines.
In 2010, when oil from a BP offshore oil drilling rig spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, people on the Louisiana coastline stepped in to help by donating their hair to soak up the spill. Up to 450,000 pounds of hair was donated. In 2007, the same tactic was used when 58,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled from a container ship in the San Francisco Bay area.
In 2006, thousands of prisoners had their heads and chests shaved to donate hair to help mop up the Philippines’ worst oil spill.
The collection was in response to a nationwide drive by the Philippines government to amass tons of hair and feathers to absorb more than 50,000 gallons of industrial fuel that leaked from a tanker when it sank off the central island of Guimaras on August 11.
The 15,000 inmates at a maximum security prison in southern Manila, including 1,000 on death row, joined the drive.
About 500 hair salons in Manila also joined the “Stop the Oil Spill” drive by collecting hair clippings from their shops.
