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How to Determine if an Oil Spill Is Problematic for Human Health?

While many oil spills do contaminate the environment (e.g., soil, sediment, water, air), specific testing should be conducted to determine if there are any threats to human health. Such testing may involve collecting water, soil and sediment samples, as well as checking the quality of indoor air. The samples could be tested for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), various petroleum distillates, as well as for specific individual petroleum compounds (e.g., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene) and/or classes of compounds (such as PAHs, n-alkanes, isoprenoids, cicloalkanes, alkyl-cycloalkanes - usually by chromatographic methods such as GC/FID and GC/MS methods). Many commercial laboratories in the U.S. have a series of standardized testing for such determinations.

In the U.S., Environmental protection Agency (EPA) as well as various state agencies may conduct specific studies following oil spills in order to determine the extent of the spill and insure that adequate oil spill cleanup follows. Stain removers may also be used to rehabilitee contaminated environments. EPA is actively conducting such testing following the BD oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico – please check the EPA page for more information here:http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/

How Do Oil Spills Affect Residents?

Regardless of the specifics of the oil spill or how many gallons of oil are spilled, one rule applies: if the oil contamination reaches residential areas (in water, air, and or soil) resident health may be affected. Additionally, even if the oil spill is not reaching residential areas, residents may be exposed to contaminated food and impacted by negative economic and recreation effects following an oil spill in a general area (especially for large oil spills).

Here are examples of how residents may be affected by an oil spill:

  • By breathing contaminated air – since oil and products (petroleum products) have many volatile compounds which are emitted as gases from spilled oil, air becomes contaminated with those volatile oil products or vapors producing specific odors. Even when odors are not felt, health risk may exist for some individual compounds if residents are exposed (breath the air) for a long time. Of course, when the smell is obvious the health risk increases. Once in the air, contamination may travel over long distances. Of course, that vapors will also become more diluted with the distance traveled. So, the original contamination levels at the source along with specific weather conditions may dictate the final spreading of oil contaminated air vapors.
  • By direct contact with the skin – people may come in direct contact with oil and/or oil products while walking on a contaminated area (e.g., beach). An initial irritation will be obvious. Additionally, contaminants may be absorbed though the skin and enter the body.
  • By bathing in contaminated water – for example swimming in a contaminated water stream – even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dissolved oil contaminants may exist in the water if it was impacted by an oil spill.
  • By eating contaminated food – some oil compounds bioaccumulate in living organisms and may become more concentrated along the food chain. Humans may become exposed to concentrations of contaminants in the food that could be orders of magnitude higher than in the contaminated environment. This is especially problematic since residents could be exposed even if they live far away from an oil spill if they consume food coming from a spill affected area.
  • By having limited access to recreational areas – such as contaminated beaches and coastal areas (which could be temporary closed following a large release like the one in Gulf of Mexico).
  • By job loss and general economic impact in an affected area – in the case of large oil spills such as the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

If you think your health has been or is affected by an oil spill, please do contact us.