As oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, OU researchers have applied for grants to fund research into exposure to oil and say the research could provide valuable information if oil contamination were to occur in Oklahoma.

The National Institutes of Health has issued grant-funding possibility for work involved in risk-assessment for individuals working on the Gulf oil spill, said OU College of Medicine professor Jay Hanas, who is researching the health effects on people from oil and fumes.

“We have a lot of well-experienced faculty that deal with exposures and their ‘toxilogical’ effects,” said Dr. Robert Lynch, an environmental heath expert with the College of Public Health.

With people working to clean up the spill, it is still unknown what types of health effects and worker safety issues they would face after large exposure to harmful chemicals in oil, he said.

Studies that may be funded from these grants will study the human and marine life aspect, Hanas said.

Hanas and his group have performed experiments that study the effects of oil when it contacts skin and when fumes from the oil are inhaled.

“All the organs we looked at, we saw cellular damage, usually in the form of cell death,” Hanas said.

Hanas’ other study dealing with inhalation of vapors form the oil revealed that exposure caused the same type of systemic damage.

“Already the workers in the Gulf that are dealing with the clean up are experiencing health problems,” he said.

While compounds of crude oil vary from place to place, they have similarities and what researchers learn through the spill at the Gulf may be helpful if a spill were to occur in Oklahoma, either on land or in water, Lynch said.

As researchers look into the effects, people working the spill clean up still need to be trained properly, he said.

“You can’t just send anyone out there because this stuff is toxic,” Lynch said.