Federal mobile health care unit arrives to treat BP oil spill victims

Concerned about the growing number of Gulf Coast residents and clean up workers becoming ill as a result of the British Petroleum oil spill, federal and state health care officials have teamed up to send a mobile medical clinic to Louisiana to treat people and monitor the long-term health care effects of what is clearly becoming one of the worst environmental disasters of our time. The mobile health care clinic - a joint venture between the federal Department of Health and Human Services and Louisiana public health - arrived Tuesday in Venice, La. It will stay there indefinitely to provide health care services to clean up workers and local residents who have complained so far of throat irritation, eye irritation, nausea, headache, and coughs.

Most of the attention on the BP oil spill has been focused on the environmental degradation cause by the spill. While the shock of that that is far from wearing off, public health officials realize they must be prepared for another kind of aftermath: "We are very concerned about the impact of the disaster on public health in the Gulf region," HHS Secretary Kathleeen Sebelius said in a statement Tuesday. She should be concerned. Oil contains a number of chemicals that are very toxic and dangerous to human health, and they can spread both by air over the ocean surface as well as by being washed ashore. Consider this joint report by researchers at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Royal Oak, Michigan and the Sciencecorps organization in Lexington Mass., which assesses the human health threat of the BP oil spill:

"Crude oil is a complex mixture of chemicals that have varying abilities to be absorbed into the body through the skin, lungs, and during digestion of food and water. Crude oil contains chemicals that readily penetrate cell walls, damage cell structures, including DNA, and alter the function of the cells and the organs where they are located. Crude oil is toxic, and ingredients can damage every system in the body."

It is clear that this Armageddon of oil spills will have lasting health care impacts for generations, both to humans and the incredibly delicate ecosystems along the Gulf Coast. BP must shoulder the burden of treating the illnesses of clean up workers and residents who have been at the front line of exposure since this disaster was first unleashed more than a month ago. But the health care damage doesn't end even when all - or most - of the visible signs of the petrochemical plague have been erased. We can't know right now how much toxicity has already begun to be taken up into the food chain, ultimately to be consumed by larger fish and even larger fish and, eventually, humans. Economic need will end the temporary ban on fishing, and environmental agencies undoubtedly will establish "safe" levels of chemicals to eat. Yet scientists warn that prolonged, low-level exposure to the chemicals in oil still pose a risk. When will we know that our seafood supply is once again safe?

Before announcing the deployment of the mobile health care clinic, Sebelius wrote a letter to BP America Chairman Lamar McKay. It included this line: "BP must accept responsibility for the health consequences of this disaster." Hear, hear. Yet we won't hold our breath waiting for that to happen, not even if the winds shift and blow the volatile petrochemicals our way.

Photo Credit: The National Guard