Studying the Human Health and Ecological Impacts of the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill Disaster: Introduction to This Special Issue of New Solutions

Abstract

Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health Risks Related to the Macondo Spill (GC-HARMS) began in 2011 as a component project of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ (NIEHS) Deep Water Horizon (DWH) Research Consortia program. This Gulf-wide consortium created regional community-university research partnerships focused on addressing health impacts resulting from oil spill exposures. Findings from this trans-National Institutes of Health program have helped enhance and refine community disaster preparedness and reinforced local–regional disaster response networks. Focal points of individual projects included the following: effects of multiple stressors on individuals and vulnerable populations, exposure to contaminants associated with crude oil, and mental health impacts. This introduction to New Solutions Special Issue on the GC-HARMS response to the DWH disaster presents an overview of the project’s internal structure and relationship to the comprehensive NIEHS consortia response and lists articles and interviews featured currently with brief mention of additional articles slated for the next issue.

Keywords

GC-HARMS Deepwater Horizon oil spill environmental justice CBPR

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References

Sullivan

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Howarth

et al.

Building and maintaining a citizen science network with fishermen and their communities post Deep Water Horizon oil disaster using a CBPR approach. New Solutions 2018; 28: 416–447.

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Environmentally overburdened Gulf state residents lack access to environmental specialty care. New Solutions 2018; 28: 448–462.

Sullivan

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‘I remember the mental chaos while they tried to seal the well and clean up the oil spill – how much fear and uncertainty everyone felt’: an interview with Marylee and Michael Orr, Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN)

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Sullivan

Parady

‘Keep working for environmental justice no matter how bleak things look. Don’t give up. Don’t just go away’: an interview with Wilma Subra. New Solutions 2018; 28: 487–500.

Sullivan

Rosenberg

‘Losing your land you feel like you’re losing your identity, like you’re experiencing slow death’: an interview with Chief Thomas Dardar – Houma Nation. New Solutions 2018; 28: 487–500.