Type "hair boom" into your browser and, with the exception of opinion pieces, you can read the same Associated Press article in newspapers across the country which announces the decision by BP and the U.S. Coast Guard not to use the hair booms made of donated human hair and animal fur to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf. "We foresee a risk that widespread deployment of the hair boom could exacerbate the debris problem," Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Shawn Eggert is quoted as saying.
How, exactly, would the hair booms exacerbate the debris problem?
According to an attractive fact sheet [PDF] by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "Using Booms in Response to Oil Spills," a February 2010 field test revealed that "commercial sorbent boom absorbed more oil and much less water than hair boom, which became waterlogged and sank within an hour."
Enter Matter of Trust, the 6-person San Francisco based nonprofit that has mobilized volunteers, collected 20 warehouses full of hair, animal fur, nylons, crab traps, and other materials needed to construct the booms, and yes--conducted their own tests.
