Environmental Medicine Residency Program
The paper was written by Dr. Gina Solomon, director of UC San Francisco's Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program and a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Dr. Sarah Janssen, also with UCSF and a senior scientist with the NRDC. They pointed to the known effects of crude oil's lighter chemicals, which are released into the air once the oil reaches the ocean surface. Such "volatile aromatic hydrocarbons" can cause breathing problems as well as harm to the central nervous system. Benzene exposure has been linked to leukemia, and toluene to birth defects, Solomon said in a phone interview.
In Louisiana, Solomon added, hundreds of cleanup workers reported headaches, vomiting, trouble breathing and chest pain -- all possible symptoms of exposure to the airborne chemicals. The dispersants used to clear oil from the water's surface have been known to cause dermatitis and skin infections, she added.
The heavier parts of crude that don't make it into the atmosphere, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can poison fish and shellfish, Solomon said, especially the latter. Invertebrates such as oysters, shrimp and crabs have far more trouble than vertebrate animals in purging the
red chemicals from their systems.
