Question

Read the following passage and write a summary of it in a paragraph. Suggest a suitable title for it.

During the Gulf War, a few years back, tens of thousands of sea birds were killed due to oil spills. Do you know what makes crude oil on ocean water so deadly? Crude oil is not used in the state it is produced at the off-shore wells. It is converted in refineries into a wide range of products such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel, fuel oils, and petrochemical feed-stocks. Before it is refined, the oil also contains potentially fatal components. Crude oil is made up of compounds of carbon and hydrogen called hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons may be paraffin, the oil that is used as fuel in heaters and lamps or cycloparaffins (naphthenes) or aromatic compounds in varying proportions. While crudes found in the US are mostly paraffinic, these found along the Gulf Coast are naphthenic which contain sulphur compounds in varying amounts, a small amount of nitrogen and very little oxygen. Every variety of crude oil has nickel and vanadium in high concentration. Iron may be found in organic form due to the corrosion of pipes. Paraffins like methane and ethane are asphyxiants, substances that cause suffocation. The effects of cycloparaffins are more or less similar to those of paraffins but unsaturated paraffins are more noxious, than saturated ones. The sulphur present in crude oil may be toxic. The mechanism of toxic action seems to involve its breakdown to hydrogen sulphide. They will act principally on the .nervous system with death resulting mainly from respiratory paralysis. Sulphur in the form of aromatic thiophenes, benzothiophenes can damage the livers and kidneys of sea animals. Sulphur compounds like mercaptens can be very dangerous too.

Answer 1

Side Effects of crude oil

With reference to the oil leak during the Gulf Coast War, the passage begins with a rhetorical query on what makes crude oil so lethal on ocean water. Instead of being used right away, crude oil is transformed into products like kerosene and diesel. It is composed of hydrocarbons, which include Paraffin, which are carbon and hydrogen components (used as fuels in heaters, etc.). Crude oil is naphthenic and contains sulphur (which may be harmful) along with trace levels of nitrogen and oxygen. It is paraffinic in the US and naphthenic around the Gulf coast. Nickel and vanadium are present in all varieties, and iron might also be present due to corrosion. Methane and ethane, which cause suffocation, are asphyxiants. Toxic effects may primarily affect the neurological system, leading to respiratory paralysis and death. Sulfur damages the liver and kidneys of marine animals (as thiophenes, etc.). Sulfur molecules called mercaptans can also be harmful.