First analysis of BP oil spill effects on residents health and income

Residents at town hall meeting for those impacted by the oil spill

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

First analysis of BP oil spill effects on residents health and income
(August 3 2010)

Researchers at Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness interviewed over 1,200 adults living within 10 miles of the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi, in collaboration with the Childrens Health Fund Poughkeepsie, NY and The Marist Poll of Poughkeepsie, NY. The survey, conducted by telephone in July, after the Deepwater Horizon well was capped, found evidence of significant and potentially lasting impact of the disaster on the health, mental health, and economic fortunes of residents and their children and on the way they live their everyday lives.

Among the key survey findings:
Over 40% of adults living within ten miles of the coast said they have experienced direct exposure to the oil spill or clean-up effort. Within this group, nearly 40% reported physical symptoms of skin irritations and respiratory problems, which they attributed to the oil spill.

Over one-third of parents report that their children have experienced either physical symptoms or mental health distress as a consequence of the oil spill.

One in five households report a drop in income since the oil spill, and 8% report job loss. These losses were most likely to hit those who were already economically vulnerable: households with incomes under $25,000 a year.

More than one-quarter (26.6%) of coastal residents said they thought they might have to move away from the Gulf Coast. Among those earning less then $25,000, the figure was 36.3%.

Children whose parents think they may move are almost three times more likely to have mental health distress than are children whose parents do not expect to move.

More than 70% of parents report children spending less time swimming, boating and playing in the sand; 21% say their kids are spending less overall time playing outdoors.

Coastal residents had more favorable assessments and trust in their local and state officials and in the U.S. Coast Guard than they did in BP or other Federal agencies.

Slightly over half of all coastal residents felt that BP's response was "poor," and 41.3% said that the President's response to the oil spill was poor.

Irwin Redlener, MD, director of the Schools National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) and David Abramson, PhD, NCDP director of research, met with local families at a series of town hall meeting at Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana and in Mississippi, on June 21 and 22, to hear their concerns.