Review of the OSHA-NIOSH response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: protecting the health and safety of cleanup workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Howard J ; Michaels D
• Description:
  Introduction: The fire and explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig resulted in an enormous oil spill that threatened large distances of coastline. The overall response was led by the United States Coast Guard and involved the oil company BP, federal agencies, and state and local governments of five states. Methods: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health focused extensive resources on ensuring that BP and its contractors provided safe working conditions for thousands of workers involved in the response. Federal personnel visited worksites daily, identifying hazards and means of abatement; assessed training programs to ensure that workers were adequately trained in languages they could understand; monitored chemical exposures and determined that the proper personal protective equipment was deployed; insisted on implementation of a heat mitigation program; rostered thousands of workers; and conducted extensive outreach in communities impacted by the spill. Results: Advance planning, immediate deployment, and collaboration across agencies helped ensure that the response operations resulted in no worker fatalities, and relatively few injuries and illnesses. Conclusions: For future responses, improvements should be made in how safety and health information, as well as the process behind safety and health decisions, are communicated to the public. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry Demography Environmental Exposure Environmental Pollution Explosions Fires Hazardous Substances Heat Stress Disorders Hot Temperature Occupational Health Oil And Gas Industry Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Chemical-properties Demographic-characteristics Environmental-contamination Environmental-exposure Environmental-hazards Environmental-pollution Explosion Explosive-atmospheres Exposure-levels Fire-hazards Hazardous-waste-cleanup Hazards Heat Heat-exhaustion Heat-exposure Heat-stress Monitors Oil-industry Oil-recovery Oil-refineries Oil-refinery-workers Oils Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Safety-programs Sociological-factors Training Work-environment Workers

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• ISSN:
  2157-3999
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-10
• Volume:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042311
• Citation:
  PLOS Curr 2012 Jul; 4(Disasters):1-10
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  PLOS Currents
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:63a1246fb96ac1a8eaf6a298c052b1026040ee57cf459112f58430ae695008d4d3b1125203567f594352452c7a74da3d60d7dae9af718499c823d26c7f0f2c76
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194576/cdc_194576_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.24 MB ]