Long-term Health Effects of Hebei Spirit Oil Spill on Cleanup Workers

Abstract

S-30C8-2 Background/Aims: Our objective was to examine and evaluate the health effect of the residents who participated in cleanup works in the area near Hebei-Spirit oil spill site and to overview some factors associated with the results 2 years after the accident. Methods: A survey was conducted from February 2009 to August 2009. The number of participants was 9242 adults and 457 students of the elementary school in contaminated coastal area. The symptom of allergic disease and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) as well as the information of demographic characteristics, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, number of clean-up working days were investigated using a constructed questionnaire and the oxidative stress markers, eg, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and malondialdehyde were measured. The environmental exposure direct assessment was used by simulation and direct measurement of residual contaminants in water, food, soil, and air was performed and the indirect assessment used by the days of clean-up working and residential area. Results: The prevalence of asthma among children attending school in high contaminated area was 27.2% by the questionnaire and 16.8% by metacholine provocation test, which were higher compared with those among children with similar ages in similar areas but not contaminated (16.0%, 6.4%). In adults, the odds ratio of the various symptoms of the allergic disease and MCS were increased according to increasing cleanup working days and decreasing distance to coastline contaminated by oil spill. We found the dose-response relationship between clean-up work days and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and malondialdehyde. Conclusion: Residents and children in oil spill area showed increasing symptoms of allergic disease, MCS, and higher level of oxidative stress biomarkers according to increasing indices of oil spill exposure, while there were hardly found the residual oil contaminants in various environmental media.