How public health impact is addressed: a retrospective view on three different oil spills

Spanning over a half century, over 38 “major” oil spill accidents have occurred, with the Deep Water Horizon disaster proving to be one of the largest oil spills on record. It is during these environmental disasters where the public community gathers together to participate in the clean-up effort and government entities coordinate various action plans. Whether it is using (1) workers to apply chemical dispersants to facilitate the remediation of oil in impacted areas or (2) volunteers to pick up “tar balls” from the beach shorelines; public health concerns during an oil spill are warranted for consideration. The purpose of this review was to illustrate a need for increase in scientific advancement and governmental focus on detecting and mitigating public health effects following an oil spill disaster. With focus on the Exxon Valdez, Prestige, and Gulf oil spills, the governmental and scientific community responses were assessed. Using the human-environmental system model, this review illustrates how the model can be used to address human-health concerns following exposure to an oil spill stressor.