Beyond the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill:  The Legacy

                In 1999 the EPA listed 22 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the most deadly fraction of crude oil, as persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic pollutants. Imagine how alarmed people would have been, if on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez had spilled millions of gallons of other persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic or “PBT” pollutants–– lead, dioxin, mercury, PCBs, or DDT––into Prince William Sound, Alaska, instead of oil.

            What we didn’t know about oil then is killing us now: hundreds, and potentially thousands, of workers from the 1989 cleanup are suffering from debilitating respiratory difficulties, central nervous system problems (e.g., memory loss, brain fog, headaches), and heightened sensitivity to chemicals. Many have had to alter their lives and work to accommodate their illnesses. Fish and wildlife in bays most heavily oiled took years to recover and in some cases, such as sea otters, harlequin ducks, and herring, localized stocks have still not recovered.

            In the 15 years since the Exxon Valdez oil spill, wildlife biologists working in Prince William Sound and medical researchers have developed sophisticated methods to measure subtle effects of PAHs at the cellular level. Wildlife scientists linked embryotoxicity, stunted growth, and metabolic and reproductive problems in individual fish and wildlife exposed to very low levels of PAHs with reduced fitness, delayed recovery, and even declining stocks of wildlife in some areas. Medical researchers have linked PAH exposure to systemic health problems including endocrine (hormone) disruption, suppression of immune system function, reproductive problems, and central nervous system effects in individuals.

            Studies of mass exposures of people to PAHs, such as during the Gulf War and the Exxon Valdez cleanup in 1989, found chronic and debilitating health problems. In 2003 Annie O’Neill, a graduate student at the Yale Medical School Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, conducted a health survey of EVOS cleanup workers. She found workers who had jobs with more exposure to oil mists and PAH aerosols have a greater prevalence of self-reported symptoms of difficulty breathing (chronic airway disease), neurological impairment, and chemical sensitivity than workers with less exposure. O’Neill’s survey may be just the tip of the iceberg. It is likely that inhalation of oil and oil-solvent aerosols and mists has compromised the health of thousands of cleanup workers.

            The EPA listing of 22 PAHs as the ‘worst of the worst’ human health hazards reflects a shift in scientific understanding about the toxic nature of PAHs. Wildlife researchers in Prince William Sound reached similar conclusions as reported in a December issue of Science. Simply put: oil is significantly more toxic to life than previously thought. Regulating the PAHs in fossil fuels as hazardous substances will require a vast re-tooling of our nation’s laws governing oil leasing, exploration, drilling, production, transportation (by tankers, pipelines, and trucks), distribution, consumption, and waste disposal.

            For example, federal water quality standards, based on out-dated 1970s science, set 300 parts per billion PAHs as “safe” for aquatic life. Fish and wildlife researchers have found less than 1 to 20 parts per billion kill fish embryos and poison adult birds and marine mammals. This level washes off urban streets daily and drains into coastal seas. The National Research Council reported in 2001 that the average levels of PAHs in 10 major rivers in North America is 826 parts per billion––well above even the current federal standards and over 1,000 times higher than the level that causes harm to marine life.

            It is obvious that all laws and policies regulating oil pollution are grossly under-protective of life. This new understanding of oil as a hazardous substance, combined with the Pentagon’s recent indisputable evidence on global warming, show that our society needs to transition off fossil fuels to alternative energy sources as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, suppliers and consumers of fossil fuels need to work to reduce oil pollution and risk of exposure to workers and the public.  See our Recommendations information sheet for specifics on where to go from here and now.