Evaporating oil from BP spill likely posed a health threat, study says

[Pathfinder]

Evaporating oil from BP spill likely posed a health threat, study says

Published: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 5:58 PM Updated: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 5:59 PM

By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune

A new study about the way oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon accident evaporated into the air confirms that cleanup workers were exposed to high levels of airborne pollution, and that the fumes also may have made their way onshore in Louisiana.
...

"These concentrations were high," de Gouw said. "They are much higher than what you and I are exposed to in cities. We need to have a closer look at how these plumes of aerosol impacted people on shore."
...
A podcast on this study featuring de Gouw is available on the web through CIRES at http://cires.colorado.edu/news/press/2011/gulf-air-quality.html.

An abstract of study is available on the web at www.sciencemag.org.

Full text:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/03/evaporating_oil_from_bp_spill.html

 

[wdcare]

Re: Evaporating oil from BP spill likely posed a health threat, study says

From the Times-Picayune article:
"When inhaled, both sizes of particles can reach deep inside of lungs, resulting in health problems, ranging from aggravated asthma to premature death in people with heart and lung disease."

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Evaporating oil from BP spill likely posed a health threat, study says

Joost de Gouw

Research Physicist
CIRES Senior Scientist & Fellow of CIRES
PhD, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1994

Chemical Sciences Division
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado at Boulder


http://cires.colorado.edu/~gouw/GroupMembers/JoostDegouw/JoostDegouw.html