Ornithology, Labor and Health Outcomes?

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park (Forgotten Coast of the Gulf of Florida)

Grand Isle, LA (credit AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

As I sit here scrolling through literally hundreds of pictures of the environmental disaster in the Gulf, I am reminded of what I learned as a Biology major a the University of Virginia.

For my spring break that semester, I ventured to Louisiana to study some of the same species of birds that resemble the pictures that I now see on CNN and MSNBC. Only now I don’t recognize the species of birds by sight. They are covered in oil. I don’t recognized their calls. They are covered in oil.

Today, I am wondering how my family’s vacation plans to the normally uncrowded beaches of Cape San Blas, FL and Port Saint Joe, FL will change. Perhaps there will be an influx of crowds to the Forgotten Coast of Florida. I anticipate people trying salvage the last available days of this shortened summer, sifting white sand between-the-toes while taking in the last of the clear odor-free Gulf breezes.

Maybe our reservations for vacation rentals will be canceled due to the beaches being closed. Volunteers, the government, and of course BP will try to preserve the beaches that in recent years they received grants from the Federal Government to nourish beaches after the hurricane-battered beaches had succumb to major erosion.

Maybe sacrificing my vacation for closed beaches won’t be such a bad thing. After-all, if the clean up efforts in Louisiana and Alabama foreshadow occurrences in Florida, then dozens if not a few hundred of chronically unemployed men and women will now received some sort of income. They will be hired for oil-clean up by BP.

This unexpected source of income while devastating to our environment and economy as a whole, is a welcomed opportunity for the working poor. However, as I reflect on what this means for our coastal communities, my optimism is further tempered. There are questions that have not yet been answered.

I must admit that I have not had a chance to try to find the answers to my questions. I hope that some of you reading this blog post might be inspired to seek out some of the answers through news reports or first hand accounts.


My questions:

What is the correlation between the demographics of the chronically unemployed in coastal communities in Louisiana & Alabama and the demographics of the oil spill cleanup workers hired by BP? (Hint: the majority of the oil cleanup workers that I see in the media are Black men.) A living wage?

What type of education about the teratogenic and carcinogenic side effects of the oil and chemical dispersant compounds have these recent hires received? (Hint: Both men and women that encounter with teratogens may have children with birth defects and chronic medical conditions. Carcinogens are cancer-causing agents and can result in cancer diagnosis in the individual themselves. There is a reason the dispersant currently being used in the gulf were banned in Europe.)

If these men and women have not been adequately informed about the risk to their health, what role should the Center for Disease Control (a Federal Agency) play? What role should our health advocacy groups play?

Who will be responsible for the short term and long term health care costs not only of the recently unemployed and underemployed fishermen, but for the oil spill cleanup workers? (Hint: Health Care Reform may be coming, but it is not here yet.)

What community resources will be available to support families responsible for caring for the children that will likely be born to men and women that come in direct contact teratogens and carcinogens related to the oil spill?

These are just a few of the questions and thoughts that have crossed my mind.

Perhaps I will keep my vacation plans on the Forgotten Coast. Instead of the beach chairs and the umbrella, maybe I can relax on my deck and reminisce with a few books from college: Invertebrate Zoology, Vertebrate Zoology, Ornithology, Botany. After all, it is not likely that I will not have access to wildlife in person. Of course I will have my trusted laptop nearby so I can do a little research on those questions myself.

Until then, let me know what you find.