Long-Term Respiratory and Genotoxic Effects in The Prestige Oil Spill

Abstract

In 2002, the wreckage of the Prestige tanker and the subsequent oil spill prompted an epidemiological study promoted by the Spanish Thoracic Society (SEPAR). The study evaluated the long-term health effects of oil exposure among fishermen who participated in clean-up activities. The study resulted in eight original articles addressing the long-term respiratory and genotoxic effects of the exposure to the spill. After the Prestige accident, three additional major oil spills have occurred. In all of them, epidemiological studies addressed effects of oil exposure on different aspects of human health and prompted the international collaboration in investigations on health consequences of oil exposure, being the effects on the respiratory tract one of the most consistently substantiated. In the present review we analyse the potential effects on human health of oil compounds and summarise the main findings of the investigations conducted in the Prestige oil spill and subsequent accidents.