The National Institutes of Health is planning a $10 million study to track the long-term health effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a conference call with reporters, public health practitioners, and members of the Gulf Coast community, linkurl:Dale Sandler,;http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/epi/chronic/index.cfm an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), said that the sweeping research project will prospectively track the health of about 50,000 adult workers and volunteers who contributed to cleaning up the oil spill. The study will include pulmonary and neurological function tests, mental health monitoring, DNA damage analyses, immunological assessments, and other screens. The scope of the effort to track the health impacts of one of history's largest oil spills is unprecedented. Sandler, chief of NIEHS's Chronic Disease Epidemiology Group and principal investigator on what's being tentatively called the "Gulf Worker Study," noted...
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Atmospheric Administration |
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