James Miller, a commercial shrimper, lifelong fisherman in Mississippi and former BP oil response worker, is horribly sick.

"I've been vomiting, my head feels like it's going to explode, diarrhoea, and I keep passing out," Miller, who worked in BP's so-called Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) oil response programme, said from his bed at Biloxi Regional Hospital on November 5.

Four days earlier, Miller, his wife and dog were boating on the Gulf of Mexico near one of Mississippi's barrier islands when all three of them fell ill.
 
"My wife and I felt the chemicals immediately and my dog even started hacking like he was trying to cough up a bone," Miller explained.

Later that day he began vomiting and experiencing a severe headache and diarrhoea. Then on November 4 he passed out in the shower. Concerned by his uncontrollable nausea and bleeding in his esophagus, his wife took him to the emergency room.

"The doctor just told me I have acid reflux," Miller, who has been experiencing many of his symptoms since joining the VOO programme, said. "They don't even know what this is. I told him I needed to be tested for toxic chemicals. I'm in a major hospital and they are telling me they don't know what this is."