The focus in coverage of the ongoing Gulf oil spill has justifiably been the environmental impact of this disaster and its effect on the industries that depend on the sea. But let’s not forget that this incident began as a safety incident when the drilling rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers. And the cleanup of the oil spill has safety implications as well. NIOSH Efforts to Protect Workers & Volunteers The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) science blog has detailed information on the agency’s efforts to protect workers and volunteers. Occupational health specialists from NIOSH arrived in the Gulf on May 2, 2010 and have been providing on-site technical assistance, including input on worker health hazard risk assessment tools and PPE selection tools used to train workers. For more details, check the Deepwater Horizon Response Resources topic page, which is updated as additional information becomes available. This unprecedented disaster poses many challenges for NIOSH and its federal, state and local partners, including complex exposures to heat, physical stress, fatigue and toxic chemical and physical agents in several different work tasks on the water and on the shore. Some of NIOSH’s efforts include:

• Developing a voluntary roster containing information about more than 20,000 response workers participating in the recovery efforts. This information can be used to contact them about possible work-related symptoms of illness or injury, if needed, and could be used for possible future studies to determine whether any health conditions that may develop are associated with occupational exposures during the cleanup. (Click here for a copy of the rostering form.);
• Monitoring for health symptoms of acute injury, illness or job stress by workers;
• Conducting a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) of reported illnesses among workers involved in offshore cleanup operations; and
• Initiating toxicity studies of both crude oil and chemical dispersant mixtures to address reports of workers with dermal and respiratory symptoms or headaches.

Safety Guidance Document NIOSH and OSHA have posted Interim Guidance for Protecting Deepwater Horizon Response Workers and Volunteers. Because the spill conditions and response are continually changing, the material is an “interim” guideline, which can be revised and updated with new information about either work conditions or health exposures as they are learned. This guidance is a useful tool for any company that could be faced with a similar spill or whose workers could be exposed to the same hazards.