BP Gulf Oil Spill - An Industrial Hygienists' Experience

On April 20, 2010 an explosion and fire occurred on Transocean Ltd's drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, licensed to BP Plc, killing 11 workers. The rig was drilling in BP's Macondo project, 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, in 5,000 feet (1,525 meters) of water and 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) under the seabed. With the collapse of the drilling rig, one of the largest environmental disasters began as oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. As BP marshaled personnel to conduct the clean-up effort, industrial hygienists and safety professionals were tasked to provide monitoring and safety plans in support of the operation to save the gulf. Quantifying the environmental exposures to hundreds of fishermen, volunteers, and clean-up workers turned out to be a massive undertaking. The enormity of the disaster, with its long term effects, may be over-shadowed by legal obstacles for years to come. Thus, understanding the mechanism of providing industrial hygiene support in this complex setting, from the personal viewpoint of an industrial hygienist, should unravel much of the mystery as to what really happened during the Gulf of Mexico clean-up of 2010. Beyond the day-to-day media coverage, this presentation will describe industrial hygiene operations, the logistical challenges of conducting environmental monitoring, and an overview of the difficulties of working in the oppressive summer heat of the Gulf of Mexico on small shrimp boats as the oil spill devastated the fishing and seafood industry.