Gulf oil spill: scientists assess health effects

Days after a vacationing President Obama swam in gulf waters and tasted fish caught off the coast of Florida, scientists with the Natural Resources Defense Council said the gulf oil spill probably still will have far-reaching health effects on both seafood and people.

The commentary, published online Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., examined the potential effects of the oil spill on workers, residents and seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico. The  report followed seafood testing done by the Food and Drug Administration indicating that levels of the heavier toxic substances in oil that can kill marine life were well below federally set limits.

The paper was written by Dr. Gina Solomon, director of UC San Francisco's Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program and a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Dr. Sarah Janssen, also with UCSF and a senior scientist with the NRDC. They pointed to the known effects of crude oil's lighter chemicals, which are released into the air once the oil reaches the ocean surface. Such "volatile aromatic hydrocarbons" can cause breathing problems as well as harm to the central nervous system. Benzene exposure has been linked to leukemia, and toluene to birth defects, Solomon said in a phone interview.

In Louisiana, Solomon added, hundreds of cleanup workers reported headaches, vomiting, trouble breathing and chest pain -- all possible symptoms of exposure to the airborne chemicals. The dispersants used to clear oil from the water's surface have been known to cause dermatitis and skin infections, she added.

The heavier parts of crude that don't make it into the atmosphere, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can poison fish and shellfish, Solomon said, especially the latter. Invertebrates such as oysters, shrimp and crabs have far more trouble than vertebrate animals in purging the chemicals from their systems.

Solomon also pointed to studies that documented mental health effects, such as high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, in the wake of oil spills. (On Monday, BP announced $52 million in grants to five gulf states for mental health services.)

"The biggest of these issues depends on who you are talking to, and when," Solomon said. "Last month was air quality, this month was seafood safety -- maybe next month will be mental health."

To assess the potential health fallout, Solomon drew on data from previous oil spills. She pointed, for example, to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, in which 15% of the filed 1,811 workers' compensation claims were for respiratory problems.

But, the scientists wrote in the JAMA paper, "no information is available in the peer-reviewed literature about longer-term health effects of [the Exxon Valdez] spill."

And without copious amounts of study from past spills, Solomon said, it's difficult to advise people about whether they should eat shrimp, find other work, or even leave town. 

"People are looking for clear guides," Solomon said, "and the guide right now is in shades of gray, not black and white."

-- Amina Khan

Photo: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke examines Gulf Coast shrimp in August during a tour of the Lafitte Frozen Seafood Corp. Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Comments

[William Fuzi]

It is completely safe. raw crude oil, and even breathing in burning oil smoke is perfectly safe. I mean I was in the middle of three diferent burning oil fields. I had to crawl through ponds of raw crude iol, and sleep in the raining oil. I also had to eat my meals in the oil rain. The smoke was so thick you couldn't see 20 feet in front of you. The oil fog was so bad we were twenty yards from an Iraqi division and we couldn't even see eachother to fight. The EPA and the military told all the Gulf War vets the oil was safe. Just do what they told us to do. Shut up and stop crying about it. Who cares how you feel the oil is safe. If it was safe to send us through the middle of a burning oil field then you have nothing to worry about. Nuff said get over it. Thats what they told us to do.

[observer]

The seafood from the gulf is NOT SAFE TO EAT!
HOW CAN EATING CONTAMINATED FOOD BE SAFE???
This world has gone mad and they are trying to keep the insanity going!!!
It is like the EMPERORS NEW CLOTHES !!!
This catastrope is far from over.
We will be seeing it's effects on us for years to come!
Sad but true!

[observer]

The dispersants and oil are not leaving the area like they say..THE GOVERNMENT FDA SAYS THAT IT IS SAFE TO EAT SEA
FOOD FROM THE GULF!
THIS IS A BLATANT LIE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!
IT IS NOT SAFE TO EAT FROM THERE TILL WE KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE OIL AND DISPERSANTS!
Some of the toxins have traveled in the currents to other parts of the world. some have evaporated, BUT DO NOT BE FOOLED!
THIS KIND OF STUFF DOES NOT JUST GO AWAY IN A MONTH OR TWO!
MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF OIL AND DISPERSANTS?
Between nuclear threats and environmental disasters, HAPPY HOUR IS NOW!
IS TEQUILA SAFE???

[Bill Carson]

Check this out, the other day they had a picture of President Obama and his daughter swimming in the Florida Panhandle about 1500 miles from the gulf oil spill. The president was showing everyone how safe the water was. My question was that they should have shown President Obama and his family stop and eat some of the shrimp in New Orleans. Some of the gulf newspapers have banned me from bloging on the gulf papers as a result of this comment.

Is this comment wrong?

Fish are visible members of aquatic communities that are vulnerable to PAH contamination.Epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and cancer needs to be reviewed! You can't taste PAH and dispersants double the amount of PAH !

[Marchmont]

In June, with critics comparing the Gulf to Hurricane Katrina, Obama announced the “British Petroleum” oil spill the “worst environmental disaster the US has ever faced”. America’s grubby politicians, green-lobby tub-thumpers, compensation claimants and their mega-bucks lawyers went completely ballistic every night on prime-time TV. However with more than 4,000 oil wells in the Gulf, the ecosystem is used to seepage; the light oil dissipated quickly in its warm waters; and powerful currents from the enormous Mississippi Delta swept much of it away from the shore. Today the pristine beaches are back to normal but Obama’s poisonous remarks have wiped £45 billion off the value of BP, damaged millions of US and UK pensions, and wrecked the tourist trade.