Oil Spill May Stress Out Gulf Residents for Decades

04-21-2011 • http://www.livescience.com/

The Deepwater Horizon disaster, which began a year ago, has placed psychological stress on some Gulf residents similar to that experienced by Alaskans in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill more than 20 years ago.

After the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig caused oil to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, a survey of residents of south Mobile County, Ala., revealed psychological stress similar to what befell residents of the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska, after the oil tanker the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989.

The results were based on responses from 412 adults who had lived within the Mobile area for at least a year. The random telephone survey was modeled on research done after the Exxon Valdez spill, which hit Cordova hard.