Oil Spill Raises Public Health Concerns

New report suggests workers, residents in Gulf region at risk

15 July 2010

Gulf cleanup workers in close contact with crude oil, smoke fumes and dispersants have reported feeling ill, according to the author of a new report by the Center for American Progress.

As the environmental and economic disaster continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico following the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, attention has largely focused on efforts to cap the gushing sea-bottom well.

However, the Center for American Progress, an independent policy research group, has examined the potential health risks associated with the spill.

Public health dangers

The report's co-author, Lesley Russell, says the hundreds of millions of liters of crude oil that have poured from BP's broken well into the Gulf of Mexico over the past three months pose a variety of public health dangers.

She says cleanup workers in close contact with crude oil, smoke fumes and dispersants have reported feeling ill, as have many residents whose lives have been turned upside down.

Increased patrols move along the Texas coast in response to reports of tar balls washing ashore.

Russell says the long-term impact of toxins in the environment could produce respiratory problems, excess cancers, endocrine and fertility issues, problems with contaminated seafood and post traumatic stress syndrome.