Health Consequences among Subjects Involved in Gulf Oil Spill Clean-up Activities

Crude oil spills affect human health through exposure to inherent hazardous chemicals including para-phenols and volatile benzene.1, 2, 3 The major health consequences of crude oil spill exposure include the abnormalities in hematologic, hepatic, respiratory, renal, and neurologic functions.4, 5 In addition, subjects exposed to oil spills often experience frequent asthmatic attacks, headache, diarrhea, dizziness, abdominal pain, back pain, and other symptoms.4, 6, 7, 8, 9

On April 20, 2010, the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig located 50 miles off the Louisiana coast exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1).5, 10 Consequently over 200 million gallons of oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico,11 thereby contaminating the Gulf coast. During the height of this disaster, BP used nearly 2 million gallons of dispersants such as COREXIT12 (Nalco Energy Services, L.P., Sugar Land, Tex) to break down the oil slick.11 This oil spill and use of massive amounts of dispersant has the potential to affect human health. It is estimated that up to 170,000 people worked in some capacity to clean up the Gulf oil spill.13

Previously, several studies have evaluated the health impact of other oil spills.5, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16 These studies primarily focused on physical effects and psychological sequelae. In addition, these studies point to potential adverse effects among oil spill clean-up workers. Earlier studies reported that benzene exposure is associated with hematological toxicity and increased cancer risk.17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 While such rare adverse outcomes may take years to develop, immediate health effects of oil spill exposure may be seen in hematological and hepatic parameters, indicating its toxic effects and potential for future health risk.23

To investigate the adverse health effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a retrospective analysis was performed on subjects participating in the oil spill clean-up activity along the coast of Louisiana. Specifically, we assessed the hematologic and hepatic markers in a cohort of oil spill clean-up workers, and the clinical findings were compared with the unexposed (control) subjects.

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– Mark A. D’Andrea, MD, FACRO, G. Kesava Reddy, PhD, MHA

This article originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.