Hundreds sickened by Enbridge oil spill

Hundreds of people who live and work near Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River experienced headaches, trouble breathing, and nausea or vomiting after an Enbridge oil pipeline spilled an estimated million gallons of heavy tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River this summer.

Health problems were reported by the majority of area residents surveyed by public health workers three weeks after the spill. At that time nearly everyone surveyed could still smell fumes from the oil.

The acute health effects of the Enbridge oil spill are described in a
report released this week by the state Dept. of Community Health.

According to the report, between July 26 and September 4, 2010, area health care providers reported 147 oil spill related visits involving 145 people:

Approximately one-third (31%) of the medical outcomes of these individuals were classified as minor and two-thirds (64.8%) as moderate. There were no deaths. …The one individual with medical outcome classified as “major” had significant exposure and had 8 reported clinical effects. Those with a medical outcome of “moderate” had on average 3.7 clinical effects whereas those classified as “minor” had 2.4 clinical effects.

Because health care providers may fail to associate symptoms with oil exposure, it is very likely that there was a significant amount of under-reporting by clinicians, the report states.

The report also acknowledges that the mental health effects of the spill may not have been fully captured. Oil spills elsewhere have been shown to cause lingering anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression but these problems are unlikely to surface in a door-to-door survey shortly after the spill.

State health officials conducted just such a survey in four communities at the spill site and along the oil contaminated waterways. Of 550 people interviewed, 320 reported that they developed health problems after the spill. People living in homes with the lowest estimated value and those who smoke reported the most and the most severe health effects related to the spill.

The health problems experienced in communities near the oil may be related to exposure to benzene in the air.

On July 29, three days after the spill was reported, health officials recommended that people evacuate approximately 61 homes north and northwest of the spill site after air samples near the Kalamazoo River showed dangerous levels of benzene.

“Even a very low level of benzene exposure can produce health effects,” said MDCH toxicologist Linda Dykema. “According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry the maximum safe level for acute benzene exposure is 9 parts per billion (ppb). Acute exposure is defined as up to 14 days.”

A day after the spill air samples along the Kalamazoo River showed readings in the range of 15,000 ppb.

A map of air monitoring data produced by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contractors showed levels between 100ppb and 1200 ppb at homes in the area, she said.

Dykema said that epidemiological studies of long-term benzene exposure in factories shows an increase in leukemia and other cancers that relate to immunological and hemoplastic systems (the hemoplastic system develops blood cells).

“We don’t have studies in humans for short term exposure,” she said, “but animal studies suggest that health problems from short term exposure are reversible and not likely to progress to a chronic, permanent condition.”

People were not warned of the health risk posed by the air until three days after the spill. The evacuation order, which was lifted on Aug. 17, was voluntary, and most residents in the affected area reportedly chose to remain in their homes.

If there are any lingering health problems relating to oil spill exposure, they may be difficult to prove.

“Health care providers have stopped contacting MDCH with reports of oil spill related illnesses,” said MDCH Section Manager Martha Stanbury, and the state has no plan for continuing surveillance of health issues in the area.

Stanbury said that as time passes it becomes more difficult to link chemical exposure to health problems.

“Our main concern now is getting oil cleaned up so people can get out on the river in spring.” she said.