Health study to look at long-term effects of oil spill on cleanup workers

By Guy Busby, Press-Register
1 September 2011 ORANGE BEACH, Alabama – Researchers want to include as many as one-third of the 150,000 cleanup workers in a national long-term study of the health effects of the exposure to the effects of the 2010 oil spill. On Wednesday, representatives from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Alabama Department of Mental Health met with oil spill workers and volunteers in Orange Beach and Foley. A third meeting will be at 2 p.m. today at the Bayou La Batre Community Center at 12745 Padgett Switch Road in Irvington. The meeting was to recruit participants for the Gulf Long Term Follow-Up Study, Dr. Dale Sanders of the NIH said. “This is a contribution you’re making for future generations and for people who might be involved in future oil spills,” she told the approximately 20 people attending the Orange Beach meeting. […] One key to the study is finding the workers more than a year after the oil leak was capped. Cynthia Klein, community outreach coordinator for the study, said more than 50 organizations, including seafood associations and churches, have been contacted to help in the effort. […] “You’ve got a very large number of workers that are located in Foley, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores,” she said. “That’s why we’re having it in south Baldwin County, because that’s where most of the workers reside.” Anyone wanting more details about the study can go to nihgulfstudy.org or call 855-644-4853 to sign up for the study.