Public Health Consequences of the Gulf Oil Spill

During the first week of the BP Gulf Oil Spill (GOS), NIEHS partnered with NIOSH and OSHA in responding to the immediate and future worker safety training and education needs related to the oil spill and worked with BP officials and the Coast Guard to assess the exposures its responding workers may encounter, their personal protection needs, and strategies for training. NIEHS deployed staff, subject matter experts and awardees for instructor training and worker protection outreach.

Based on the lessons learned in responding to the Gulf Oil Spill, NIEHS WETP makes the following recommendations to protect emergency responders during any large scale oil spill response event:

1) Clear and repeated information and training must be provided to all contractors, clean-up workers and volunteers based on an analysis of job tasks and potential exposure to oil waste and weathered by-products. 2) All water borne and shore-based responders must be outfitted and trained and supplied with adequate safety gear to assure the highest level of protection for limiting exposure water-borne oil waste products. 3) The Responsible Party (BP) must establish in conjunction with the Incident Commander a comprehensive injury and illness reporting system to ensure full reporting of ALL safety and as health related issues experienced by clean-up workers. 4) First aid and emergency medical response capacity must be established in all on-shore and off-shore departure points and response sites. 5) All state and federal health and safety agencies need access to all oil response areas on water and land to assure the safety of all response workers. 6) Federal and state public health agencies must collaborate with the Unified Command to create a registry of all responders who are being employed, contracted or volunteering for the responsible party. 7) A collaborative process must be established to share data between the responsible party and federal and state health agencies to gather, tabulate and analyze exposure information for cleanup workers to oil, degreasers, and detergents and other common safety and health hazards.