Estimates of Inhalation Exposures among Land Workers during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Clean-up Operations

Tran B Huynh; Caroline P Groth; Gurumurthy Ramachandran; Sudipto Banerjee; Mark Stenzel; Aaron Blair; Dale P Sandler; Lawrence S Engel; Richard K Kwok; Patricia A Stewart

doi:10.1093/annweh/wxab028

Estimates of Inhalation Exposures among Land Workers during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Clean-up Operations

Ann Work Expo Health. 2022 Apr 7;66(Suppl 1):i124-i139. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxab028.

Authors

Tran B Huynh¹, Caroline P Groth², Gurumurthy Ramachandran³, Sudipto Banerjee⁴, Mark Stenzel⁵, Aaron Blair⁶, Dale P Sandler⁷, Lawrence S Engel^{7

8}, Richard K Kwok^{7

9}, Patricia A Stewart¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, 3215 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19004, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, West Virginia University, One Medical Center Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
³ Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California-Los Angeles, 650 Charles E. Young Dr. South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁵ Exposure Assessment Applications, LLC, 6045 N. 27th. St., Arlington, VA 22207, USA.
⁶ Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20892, USA.
⁷ Chronic Disease Epidemiology Group, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 111 T.W. Alexander Drive - MD A3-05, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
⁸ Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
⁹ Office of the Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
¹⁰ Stewart Exposure Assessments, LLC, 6045 N. 27th. St., Arlington, VA 22207, USA.

Abstract

Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, thousands of workers and volunteers cleaned the shoreline across four coastal states of the Gulf of Mexico. For the GuLF STUDY, we developed quantitative estimates of oil-related chemical exposures [total petroleum hydrocarbons (THC), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and n-hexane (BTEX-H)] from personal measurements on workers performing various spill clean-up operations on land. These operations included decontamination of vessels, equipment, booms, and personnel; handling of oily booms; hazardous waste management; beach, marsh, and jetty clean-up; aerial missions; wildlife rescue and rehabilitation; and administrative support activities. Exposure estimates were developed for unique groups of workers by (i) activity, (ii) state, and (iii) time period. Estimates of the arithmetic means (AMs) for THC ranged from 0.04 to 3.67 ppm. BTEX-H estimates were substantially lower than THC (in the parts per billion range). Both THC and BTEX-H estimates were substantially lower than their respective occupational exposure limits. The work group, 'Fueled engines' consistently was one of the higher exposed groups to THC and BTEX-H. Notable differences in the AM exposures were observed by activity, time and, to a lesser degree, by state. These exposure estimates were used to develop job-exposure matrices for the GuLF STUDY.

Keywords: Deepwater Horizon; BTEX; Bayesian methods; hexane; oil spill; total hydrocarbons.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Humans
Hydrocarbons / analysis
Inhalation Exposure
Occupational Exposure*
Petroleum Pollution*

Substances

Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding