Response to Oil Spill

To advance the public's health and well-being through education, research & service
with a focus on issues affecting Louisiana

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
School of Public Health
Oil Spill Human Health Research

The Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded on April 20, 2010, releasing more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and along the shorelines of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. Since the DWH oil disaster, many research projects were started to answer questions about the effect of the spill on individuals and communities along the Gulf of Mexico; determine if there were ongoing or long term effects on these communities; and figure out how to prepare individuals and communities to cope with future environmental disasters in their region.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has funded the Deepwater Horizon Research Consortium, a network of community and university partnerships that will be conducting research in the Gulf region over the next five years. The Consortium will identify personal and community health effects from the Horizon oil spill and help identify ways to improve the communities’ ability to recover from future disasters.   Each of these partnerships focuses on a different aspect of the Gulf oil spill such as the effects of the spill on the mental and physical health of mothers and children, or the effects of the spill on those who fish for a living or consume large amounts of seafood.

Oil Spill Information Presentation

Given the concerns for your health and well-being and the important knowledge you have about the spill impacts, you may be contacted for participation in more than one study. 

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health Studies

The Women And Their Children's Gulf Health (WATCH) Study

The Women and Their Children’s Health (WATCH) study will investigate the short and long term physical, mental and community health effects resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010.

The objectives of the LSU Women And Their Children's Gulf Health (WATCH) study are:

• To find out if the oil spill is affecting your state of mind and your mental health in the months after the spill
• To examine among the adult women the association between seafood consumption and heavy metal accumulation measured in participants' urine. To examine whether heavy metal accumulation is associated with a greater presence of neurological, respiratory or immunologic disorders
• To estimate among adult women the associations between oil spill exposure and physical and emotional health outcomes such as respiratory disease, rashes, headaches, depression and emotional distress.
• To understand the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on children's development and well-being, and to examine how parental and social forces, changes the spill's effects on children.

As part of our project, we will be contacting individuals to help us by providing information, samples of blood and urine.  In addition to our study, you may be contacted to participate in the others studies - this may include the GuLF Study (if you were an oil spill worker or helped with the clean-up efforts) or one of the other 3 funded projects in the Deepwater Horizon Research Consortia.

For more information or to find out about the research study call Toll Free: 855-455-3170

Our letterhead logo will be on all materials related to our study.  University based personnel working on our project include the following: