{"id":2722,"date":"2011-03-06T22:28:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T22:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=2722"},"modified":"2011-03-06T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2011-03-06T22:28:08","slug":"ee-greenwire-louisiana-poll-shows-widespread-health-effects-in-spills-wake-survey-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2011\/03\/06\/ee-greenwire-louisiana-poll-shows-widespread-health-effects-in-spills-wake-survey-report\/","title":{"rendered":"E&E: Greenwire: Louisiana poll shows widespread health effects in spill’s wake & Survey report"},"content":{"rendered":"

BP Oil DIsaster– Results from a Health & Economic Impact Survey<\/a>La. poll shows widespread health effects in spill’s wake (03\/04\/2011)<\/p>\n

Elana Schor, E&E reporter<\/p>\n

Nearly half of surveyed residents in Louisiana’s coastal parishes
\nexperienced adverse health effects that could be linked to chemical
\nexposure in the months after the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher last year,
\naccording to a poll released yesterday by a green group in partnership
\nwith Tulane University’s disaster leadership academy.<\/p>\n

The health impact poll, billed as “the largest known face-to-face
\nsurvey of communities impacted by the oil spill” by its authors at the
\nLouisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB), also found that locals’ health
\ncomplaints sometimes went untreated, even among those with health care
\ncoverage. While 54 percent of respondents held health insurance, 15
\npercent sought medical care for more direct exposures and 31 percent
\ndid so for symptoms.<\/p>\n

The share of respondents using over-the-counter medication “more often
\nthan usual” to deal with health problems in the wake of the oil spill
\nalso hit 31 percent in the LABB-Tulane poll, which was conducted with
\nsupport from the Patagonia clothing company.<\/p>\n

LABB conducted its survey of 954 residents in the Louisiana coastal
\nparishes of Plaquemines, Jefferson, Terrebonne and St. Bernard during
\nthe day, a limitation it noted would “likely exclude” many of the
\nfishermen and other coastal locals hired by BP PLC and federal
\nresponders to help clean up the spilled oil.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the group — which often faces off against the oil
\nindustry, particularly on the issue of air emissions from local
\nrefineries — expressed hope last year that its project could help
\ninform a sweeping National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
\n(NIEHS) study of the Gulf Coast health impact from the 86-day leak
\n(Greenwire, Aug. 19, 2010).<\/p>\n

NIEHS’s prospective study, carrying a $10 million-plus budget and
\nexpected to survey upward of 55,000 oil spill cleanup workers, was
\nofficially kick-started this week (Greenwire, March 1).<\/p>\n

“More data should be gathered, but most important is action,” LABB
\nwrote in its report on the survey results. “Absence of data should not
\nbe used as an excuse for inaction.”<\/p>\n

The green group’s recommendations, which it described as coming largely
\nfrom interviews with affected coastal residents, included an increase
\nin access to health care providers trained in treating the consequences
\nof exposure to oil and dispersants, a focus on treatment in addition to
\nstudy of symptoms, and training of locals in seafood sampling and other
\nlong-term spill recovery work.<\/p>\n

Whether that call for more attention to medical treatment will pay
\ndividends remains unclear. Both the Obama administration and BP
\nreported during the spill that their sampling of air and water along
\nthe Gulf Coast yielded little cause for concern about lingering
\nenvironmental health consequences in the area. Monitoring of chemical
\nexposure among cleanup workers, however, raised alarms among
\nenvironmentalists and some veteran industrial hygienists (Greenwire,
\nJune 11, 2010).<\/p>\n

Survey <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BP Oil DIsaster– Results from a Health & Economic Impact SurveyLa. poll shows widespread health effects in spill’s wake (03\/04\/2011) Elana Schor, E&E reporter Nearly half of surveyed residents in Louisiana’s coastal parishes experienced adverse health effects that could be linked to chemical exposure in the months after the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher last … Continue reading E&E: Greenwire: Louisiana poll shows widespread health effects in spill’s wake & Survey report<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2726,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions\/2726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}