NIEHS is leading a National Institutes of Health (NIH) long term study looking at the potential health effects of the oil spill in various responder populations. During FY 2015, the GuLF STUDY (Gulf Long-term Follow-Up Study) actively conducted the follow-up interviews. Additionally, NIEHS investigators are in the midst of inviting 6,200 English-speaking cohort members from within 60 miles of clinics in New Orleans, LA or Mobile, AL to take part in clinical examinations for the Biomedical Surveillance Sub-Cohort, in hopes of completing exams with 3,500 to 4,000 participants. Participants undergo comprehensive lung function testing and be asked to complete a battery of behavioral and physiological tests to assess neurological function. Biological samples will be collected to assess immune, renal, and kidney function. Smaller clinical sub-studies, such as assessing temporal changes in stress hormones through collection of repeat saliva samples, are also included. Finally, participants complete a comprehensive clinical mental health assessment which includes questionnaire modules to assess traumatic events and substance abuse as well as questions designed to assess mental health services utilization by participants. In the meantime, NIEHS investigators are working to evaluate all of the available environmental and occupational exposure monitoring data in order to more completely characterize exposures in the study population. Ongoing statistical modeling will lead to the development of cleanup-task specific exposure matrices that will allow assignment of exposure estimates for volatile compounds and other exposures related to oil spill cleanup. Approaches and preliminary results from exposure characterization efforts were presented at national and international meetings. Cleaning and analysis of the baseline data has begun and we will be reporting findings at scientific meetings and writing up the results for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

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6
Fiscal Year
2015
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Indirect Cost
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U.S. National Inst of Environ Hlth Scis
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Nethery, Rachel C; Sandler, Dale P; Zhao, Shanshan et al. (2018) A joint spatial factor analysis model to accommodate data from misaligned areal units with application to Louisiana social vulnerability. Biostatistics :
Stewart, Patricia A; Stenzel, Mark R; Ramachandran, Gurumurthy et al. (2018) Development of a total hydrocarbon ordinal job-exposure matrix for workers responding to the Deepwater Horizon disaster: The GuLF STUDY. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 28:223-230
Gam, Kaitlyn B; Kwok, Richard K; Engel, Lawrence S et al. (2018) Exposure to Oil Spill Chemicals and Lung Function in Deepwater Horizon Disaster Response Workers. J Occup Environ Med 60:e312-e318
Werder, Emily J; Gam, Kaitlyn B; Engel, Lawrence S et al. (2018) Predictors of blood volatile organic compound levels in Gulf coast residents. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 28:358-370
Kwok, Richard K; McGrath, John A; Lowe, Sarah R et al. (2017) Mental health indicators associated with oil spill response and clean-up: cross-sectional analysis of the GuLF STUDY cohort. Lancet Public Health 2:e560-e567
Engel, Lawrence S; Kwok, Richard K; Miller, Aubrey K et al. (2017) The Gulf Long-Term Follow-Up Study (GuLF STUDY): Biospecimen collection at enrollment. J Toxicol Environ Health A 80:218-229
McGowan, Craig J; Kwok, Richard K; Engel, Lawrence S et al. (2017) Respiratory, Dermal, and Eye Irritation Symptoms Associated with Corexitâ„¢ EC9527A/EC9500A following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Findings from the GuLF STUDY. Environ Health Perspect 125:097015
Groth, Caroline; Banerjee, Sudipto; Ramachandran, Gurumurthy et al. (2017) Bivariate Left-Censored Bayesian Model for Predicting Exposure: Preliminary Analysis of Worker Exposure during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Ann Work Expo Health 61:76-86
Kwok, Richard K; Engel, Lawrence S; Miller, Aubrey K et al. (2017) The GuLF STUDY: A Prospective Study of Persons Involved in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response and Clean-Up. Environ Health Perspect 125:570-578
Doherty, Brett T; Kwok, Richard K; Curry, Matthew D et al. (2017) Associations between blood BTEXS concentrations and hematologic parameters among adult residents of the U.S. Gulf States. Environ Res 156:579-587

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