Minimizing Toxic Health Effects from the Gulf Oil Spill

Aug 2, 2010, By Laura Walter-EHS Today

While oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill may have stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, experts are far from finished working to anticipate, outline and minimize the disaster’s potential health risks, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health researcher involved in helping the federal government deal with the spill’s repercussions.

The Gulf leak was the equivalent of a supertanker spill every week, explained Nalini Sathiakumar, M.D., Dr.P.H., an associate professor in UAB’s Department of Epidemiology and a pediatric nephrologists. Sathiakumar is part of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ad-hoc team formed in July that is in discussions to plan and execute research strategies surrounding health outcomes due to the oil spill.

While some of the short-term health effects are known – watery and irritated eyes, skin itching and redness, coughing and shortness or breath or wheezing – there also are many unknown health effects, said Sathiakumar. Even tourists, beach-goers and seafood lovers will face some risks going forward, she said.

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