I'm not allergic to shrimp, as it's one of my favorite foods. Got some Gulf Shrimp a few months ago, had a horrendous allergic reaction. Figured it must be the pollutants.

Truly sad because as a kid we'd go buy shrimp off the boat when visiting family in Louisiana and Mississippi. Never had a negative reaction then except my grandmother making clean the things, horrible work!

Shellfish allergies can take many years before they surface. It's possible you had a dormant allergy.

This is incredibly true. I had a friend who never had a problem with shrimp and at 27 started breaking out in hives everytime she ate shrimp. I wouldn't rule out pollutants (or even some individualized and specific reaction that occurs once or twice based on a multitude of other factors), but while I can only confirm this anecdotally and haven't looked into any science for it, it seems to come up often enough to be more than just an environmental or individual reason. I would really love to see any scientific reasoning for it with relation to shellfish as well as if there are any ethnic/age/gender specific factors for it to happen.

The externalities of oil are burden we don't want to address. It's a subsidy which allows the world to maintain the status quo.

...until the inevitable collapse forces the issue.