Editor’s Note: Nearly a year after the BP oil spill, people living along the Gulf of Mexico are still feeling the effect of the disaster, the largest oil catastrophe in history. To learn more about the spill’s health effects, Dr. Erin Marcus recently spoke with Dr. Gina Solomon, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Dr. Solomon was on the Louisiana coast during the oil spill, studying its environmental effects.What health effects have been seen so far? What kinds of symptoms are residents experiencing?A wide array of health concerns have been reported. The predominant complaint is dermal (skin rashes) such as eczema. Many (symptoms) are nonspecific: head?aches, confusion, memory problems, upper and lower respiratory symptoms, asthma, persistent cough, bronchitis, complaints of gastro-intestinal symptoms, episo?dic diarrhea.
There have been a couple of well-publicized cases of people who have become very sick with health issues that have not been sorted out. These individual stories are flying and there’s public concern, but it’s hard to make clear links. We’re struggling to determine how much is related to the oil and how much is coincidence.
The other set of issues is that people are under immense psychological strain due to economic insecurity and the effect of the spill on the gulf seafood industry. People are hurting. This was already an area of the country with poor health coverage and poor access to health care. It’s greatly increased the level of worry about health problems. The psychosocial issues are huge — anxiety, depression, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.
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http://www.louisianaweekly.com/news.php?viewStory=4038
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