Experts craft oil spill study

Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 23, 2010

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Doctors, scientists and public health experts began sketching the outlines Wednesday of a large-scale study of the health effects of the BP oil spill on cleanup workers and the public, hoping to include thousands of people in a review funded by BP.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services asked the nonprofit Institute of Medicine to gather a committee of experts to review its plans for a study of a long-term physical and psychological effects of the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana that affected people in five states.

The Institute of Medicine provides advice and research to the government and the public. Oil giant BP PLC is contributing $10 million to the study, which will be conducted by the National Institutes of Health.

The expert committee it convened met in Tampa on Wednesday to discuss how to conduct the study.