Green Blog

Ecologically, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill would seem to be on a collision course with spring. Nesting season has just begun for the myriad of migratory birds that return each year to the northern beaches and barrier islands, and the nesting season for sea turtles is rapidly approaching. Small populations of dolphins are calving nearshore, and virtually the entire western Atlantic stock of one of the world’s most prized (and endangered) commercial fish is in the Gulf this month to spawn. It’s hard to imagine a worse time of the year for what’s happening. Here’s a brief field guide.

Oil spill clean-up brings workers and volunteers into close contact with chemicals that are known to be hazardous to human health. As we deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, it helps to brush up on history.

After the Exxon Valdez disaster, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported an increase in respiratory symptoms, headaches, throat and eye irritation, rashes and other skin problems among the clean-up workers. More recently, a study of beach clean-up workers and volunteers in Spain after a 2002 oil spill found an increase in DNA damage.

Overview

Milk has nourished young mammals for millions of years, but only humans skim, shake, "chocolify," and otherwise alter and commodify the milk of other species. Yet before cattle were domesticated some 9,000 years ago, milking a cow was an extreme sport and humans avoided or just ignored their milk. And after weaning, they had no need for the enzymes that separate lactose sugars, so most older humans were lactose intolerant. But geneticists guess that 5,000-7,000 years ago in Europe a rare adventurous lactose-tolerant individual dared to drink the milk from his or her cattle. Those with similar genetic advantages eventually followed in a similar milky way.

What follows is the first of what we hope will be many guest posts from our new friend Shaylee Oleson. She works with chemically- and electrically-sensitive people to improve their health by adjusting their home environments. Shaylee is in tune with what we might imperfectly label as the Eco Feng Shui. And she's also really good at finding mold. We think she has some fun and thought-provoking stories to tell.

I continue today with Part 2 of my Q&A about oil spill health concerns with a look at different groups of people who are at a particular risk to health impacts associated with the oil spill.

In my next post, I’ll address health tips for people working on the clean-up. And you can find answers to basic background questions in my first post here.

I continue today with Part 2 of my Q&A about oil spill health concerns with a look at different groups of people who are at a particular risk to health impacts associated with the oil spill.

In my next post, I’ll address health tips for people working on the clean-up. And you can find answers to basic background questions in my first post here.

Drive south down Louisiana Route 1 to the tip of the bayou and you enter the heart of shrimping country. Some of the world’s finest seafood comes from these delicate grass and reed marshes that stretch as far as the eye can see. These are the great fertile estuaries that provide the nutrients for the bountiful seafood of the gulf.

But man has made its mark here.

As we’re waiting for the full scale of environmental, economic and wildlife impacts from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to unfold, there’s a lot of speculation and unanswered questions going around about what this means for the health of people living and working in the region.

To help answer these questions, I’ve put together a three-part Q&A on what this means for human health.

As tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico continues to unfold in painful and unpredictable ways, Americans are wondering what we can do to prevent another offshore oil disaster in the future.

I have just sent a letter to President Obama outlining NRDC’s recommendations for how we can protect marine life and coastal communities from similar spills in the Gulf or elsewhere.

BP has gone on the news and taken responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They have promised to send $25 million to Florida to help the state prepare for the oil that is about to hit its coastline. They have even tried offering fishermen immediate $5,000 payments and asking them to waive their rights to sue for more later.

In other words, BP's attempted PR cleanup is underway.