By: Erin C. Lieber

The oil spill in the Gulf Coast is said to be the worst oil spill since the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaskan waters, over 20 years ago, in 1989. The oil tanker bound for California, ended up spilling over 10.8 million U.S. gallons of crude oil, where the clean up measures were arguably slow and the environmental consequences greater than originally anticipated. Not to go unmentioned, the economic conditions created by this disaster disrupted the normal flow of goods are services, where goods could not be produced due to increasing costs of production, driving supply down, and prices up. To add insult to injury, an arduous litigation period, lasting entirely too long to be efficient, created an irresponsible allocation of tax-payer dollars. This unprecedented trial, unveiled some clever lending practices and the advent of the credit default swap between Exxon and J.P Morgan Chase.

Fast forward 21 years. We are now facing the largest oil spill in the Gulf Coast. As of today, June 1st, 2010, scientists are warning of deep unseen underwater disaster, while the CEO of BP, is clashing with the media over response time to the spill. President Obama is also under fire for a delayed response, and to this point, some say that overall gallons leaked are climbing to 20 million.

We have heard a lot in the comparisons between the Exxon spill over two decades ago and the Gulf Coast spill that we are dealing with present day. Most of it has concerned the quantities of the spill, meticulously placing blame on BP in the form of litigation and punitive damages, environmental damage to the wildlife, and the goods and services that are produced, which are now in jeopardy, due to the spill. What we haven’t heard a lot about is the psychological damages to those whose livelihoods depend on the very things that are produced in the Gulf Coast, whether directly or indirectly. These people’s lives and plans have been changed extremely quickly, and they are dealing with enormous uncertainty relative to time back to normalcy and financial stability.

If one types in “Gulf Coast Oil Spill” and “Litigation,”  Google returns 64,310 results. If one types in “Gulf Coast Oil Spill” and “Post-Traumatic Stress,” Google returns 784 results. We can see from the search that the information on the psychological effects of an oil spill like this, may not be top of mind, but maybe they should be. In this case, we have examples from the Exxon Spill 21 years ago. The consequences are quite serious, and still with us today.

Research was conducted on the economic, social, cultural and psychological impacts of the Exxon Valdez (EVOS) from 1989-1997. An interdisciplinary team of researchers was organized and directed by Dr. J. Steven Picou, who was primarily funded by The National Science Foundation and the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council.

(View entire Research Summary here: http://www.jomiller.com/exxonvaldez/articles/picou3.html)

Findings included:

• Commercial fishers and Alaska Natives were the two groups at highest risk for suffering from spill-related negative impacts.

• In 1995, six years after the spill, psychological data for commercial fishers found that:
• 20 percent had symptoms of severe anxiety
• 40 percent had severe depression
• 14 percent had symptoms of hostility
• Spill-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was assessed and 37 % were found to meet the criteria for PTSD.
• Over half of the respondents had severe depression, PTSD or a combination of predominant symptoms.

As we deal with the latest crisis in the Gulf Coast, it is important for policy makers and those involved in the management of the most recent spill to think a little bit outside of the box,and to learn from some of the mental health concerns and subsequent lessons of two decades ago. I can only hope that in the midst of this disaster, resources are being allocated that concentrate on mitigating some of the effects of the mental health reactions from 21 years ago.