The Deepwater Horizon Research Consortium FAQs
Why Are There So Many Studies in the Gulf?
The Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded on April 20, 2010, releasing more than 4
million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and along the shorelines of Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana and Texas. Since the DWH oil disaster, many research projects were started to
answer questions about the effect of the spill on individuals and communities along the Gulf
of Mexico; determine if there were ongoing or long term effects on these communities; and
figure out how to prepare individuals and communities to cope with future environmental
disasters in their region.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an institute of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), has funded the Deepwater Horizon Research
Consortium, a network of community and university partnerships that will be conducting
research in the Gulf region over the next five years. The Consortium will identify personal
and community health effects from the Horizon oil spill and help identify ways to improve
the communities’ ability to recover from future disasters. Each of these partnerships
focuses on a different aspect of the Gulf oil spill such as the effects of the spill on the mental
and physical health of mothers and children, or the effects of the spill on those who fish for a
living or consume large amounts of seafood.
In addition, NIEHS is conducting its own research in the region, the GuLF STUDY which
focuses on the short and long term health effects on oil spill workers and volunteers
involved in the DWH cleanup. The GuLF STUDY began recruiting people for that study in
2011, and the academic-community partnerships projects will begin to recruit for their
studies in early 2012.
Given the concerns for your health and well-being and the important knowledge you have
about the spill impacts, you may be contacted for participation in more than one study.
Where are the Community-University Studies Being Conducted?
The Deepwater Horizon Research Consortia will be conducting community based and
laboratory research in the Gulf coast region. These projects are led by researchers at four
universities working with local Gulf community organizations and include projects at:
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University of Florida – Healthy Gulf, Healthy Communities (HGHC): Health
Impact of Deepwater Horizon Spill in Eastern Gulf Coast Communities
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Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans - The Women And
Their Children's Gulf Health Consortium (WATCH)
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Tulane University - Trans-disciplinary Research Consortium for Gulf Resilience on
Women's Health (GROWH)
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The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston - Gulf Coast Health Alliance:
Health Risks Related to the Macondo Spill (GC-HARMS)
What is the Goal of the University of Florida Study?
Health Impact of Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Spill in Eastern Gulf Coast
Communities
The objectives of the UF Healthy Gulf, Healthy Communities (HGHC) project are:
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To find out if the oil spill is affecting your state of mind and your mental health in
the months after the spill
To find out what has helped you cope after the oil spill
To find out how the community is coping and who is most affected by the oil spill
To find out if the chemicals from the oil spill are in the air, water and the seafood in
your region
To keep talking to the community and to let people in the community know what we
are finding out in our study. It is our hope that these research findings can assist
with the recovery process and help people in the community cope with any future
environmental disasters.
As part of our project, we will be contacting individuals and local community and faith
based organizations to help us by providing information, samples of seafood caught in the
region, and/or participating in outreach activities. In addition to our study, you may be
contacted to participate in the others studies - this may include the GuLF Study (if you were
an oil spill worker or helped with the clean-up efforts) or one of the other 3 funded projects
in the Deepwater Horizon Research Consortia.
To find out more information about the University of Florida project, go the project web site
at: http://healthygulfcoast.org or contact Dr. John Glenn Morris at (352) 273-7526. We’ll be
happy to answer any questions you may have.
Our letterhead logo will be on all materials related to our study. University based personnel
working on our project include the following:
University of Florida:
J. Glenn Morris jgmorris@epi.ufl.edu
Brian Mayer bmayer@ufl.edu
Andrew Kane kane@ufl.edu
Tracy Irani irani@ufl.edu
University of West Florida:
Sam Mathews smathews@uwf.edu
University of Maryland:
Lynn Grattan lgrattan@som.umaryland.edu
University of New Orleans
Laura Scaramella lscarame@uno.edu
University of South Alabama:
James Connors jconnors@usouthal.edu