Who has sustained psychological symptoms nine years after the Hebei Spirit oil spill?: The Health Effect Research on Hebei Spirit oil spill (HEROS) study

Instruments for assessing the impacts of oil spills: an integrated approach to health, the environment and the socioeconomic profile of exposed areas

Advances in the oil industry have been associated with major disasters involving oil spills in offshore fields, negatively impacting life and the environment. We considered the importance of monitoring and evaluating these events, using various instruments, according to three research axes: health; the environment; and the socioeconomic situation of exposed populations. Thus, the objective was to survey, through a scoping review, scientific evidence involving the application of these instruments to assess the impacts of oil spills. Different databases and languages were used to search for the works. The data were reviewed by a pair of researchers, who carried out the qualitative evaluation. For synthesis of the results, we considered 45 studies distributed among observational studies with no control group, cohort studies with control group, and cross-sectional studies, with a predominance of studies focused on the health axis (n = 39; 86.66%) and with interview method (n = 29; 64.44%). We found 75 records of instruments used, with Likert-type scales, combined scales and free response patterns. In addition, there was a gap in studies on the environmental and socioeconomic axes, especially in an integrated manner. Finally, we considered the importance of new research including essential characteristics of the instruments (consistency, reliability, faithfulness, cross-cultural adaptations) for the possibility of building multidimensional matrices to monitor disasters caused by human action, facilitating decision-making in the formulation of government policies and actions.

Chemical exposure from the Hebei spirit oil spill accident and its long-term effects on mental health

While evidence indicates that exposure to oil spill incidents can affect mental health, it is unclear whether the mental health effects result from the incident itself or from exposure to associated chemicals. Oil contains chemicals that can impact mental health and these chemicals may have long-term effects due to their persistence in the environment. To address the gap in current knowledge, we conducted cross-sectional and prospective analyses of data from adults who participated in the Health Effects of the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill study. To assess chemical exposure from oil spills, we used indirect exposure indicators such as distance from the contaminated oil band to residences and duration of clean-up work, along with direct exposure indicators such as urine metabolite concentrations of volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Mental health assessments covered posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. In the cross-sectional analyses, all four mental health issues were found to be associated with proximity to the oil band (p-value<0.05) and showed a positive association with clean-up work duration (p-value<0.05). Cox regression analysis revealed that higher urinary t, t-muconic acid levels were associated with an increased risk of depression (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 1.55, 95 % Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.05-2.28), and elevated 1-hydroxypyrene levels increased the risk of PTSD (HR = 1.60, 95 % CI = 1.03-2.48). Additionally, higher urinary 2-naphthol levels were associated with increased state anxiety (HR = 1.39, 95 % CI = 1.00-1.93) and trait anxiety (HR = 1.64, 95 % CI = 1.15-2.32). These associations persisted even after controlling for distance and duration variables related to psychosocial exposure. Our findings suggest that environmental disaster response plans should prioritize minimizing chemical exposure while also considering the duration and nature of the mental health impacts.

Mental health impacts of environmental exposures: A scoping review of evaluative instruments

To date, much of the health focus of environmental policy has been on preventing physical health impacts of environmental exposures. Recent research has however highlighted increasingly concurrent mental health effects and its consideration is an emerging requirement for many governments and their agencies, yet there are limited universal mental health assessment tools for environmental exposures. This paper details the findings of a scoping review that evaluated assessment tools used to measure psychological impacts from environmental exposures and pollution, as reported in recent peer-reviewed literature (2000-2022). Across the 126 papers identified in our review, a wide range of tools to assess mental health impact were identified. We document a clear recent upswing of research interest in the mental and psychological impacts of environmental exposures, and an overarching concern for air pollution from industry, traffic, and fires. A majority of studies utilised standardised assessment instruments, but there was little consistency in the way that these were combined or deployed. The dominant mental health outcomes of interest in these studies were depression, anxiety, and mental and psychiatric health. The findings of the review identify a need and opportunity to develop a best-practice approach to consistently assess the mental health impacts arising from environmental exposures. Future work is needed to define the most appropriate choice and application of assessment tools to evaluate adverse mental health impacts from environmental exposures. This will support a more universal, coordinated and cross-jurisdiction approach for the assessment, quantification and targeted response to addressing mental health impacts arising from environmental exposures.