The wreckage of the oil tanker ‘Erika’—human health risk assessment of beach cleaning, sunbathing and swimming☆
Introduction
On Sunday December 12, 1999, the 30 000 ton Maltese oil tanker ‘Erika’ wrecked on the Atlantic Ocean about 65 km south of Penmarch (Brittany, France), causing a spillage of approximately 10 000 tons of oil, contaminating the French coast and its small islands from Southern Brittany to the Vendée over about 400–500 km (Fig. 1). For a large part, cleaning of the polluted coast had to be done by hand due to the rough and rocky nature of the coast; in addition numerous oil-contaminated birds were cleaned.
Early February 2000, the French Ministry of the Environment (Ministère de l'Aménagement du Territoire et de l'Environnement, Direction de la Prévention et des Risques, Paris) asked the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) for an independent risk assessment for humans involved in the beach-cleaning operations, at mid-April followed by a similar request dealing with tourist activities on these beaches.
Section snippets
General
In the assessment of the health risk for people involved in activities on the contaminated beaches, two types of risk associated with fuel oil #6 components have to be considered: the risk due to toxicity and the risk due to carcinogenicity. In assessing toxic risks the actual exposure levels are compared with limit values taken from the literature; in assessing carcinogenic risks the actual exposure levels are compared with the 1:104 lifetime excess risk for developing tumours.
Inhalation exposure
Regarding oil in
General
In cleaning an oil spillage the exposure routes of consideration are in general the inhalation and the dermal route; oral exposure is prevented by appropriate safety measures and safety instructions.
Estimation of the potential inhalation exposure in cases of oil spillage is very difficult due to the general lack of data and the highly varying composition of heavy fuel oils in general. However, due to the low volatility of fuel oils, human exposure to vapour concentrations of toxicological
Beach and bird cleaning
For people cleaning the beaches the actual inhalation after correction with a factor of (8/24)×(5/7) for continuous exposure time during at least a full week (except the inhalation of volatile organic compounds because this particular exposure is compared with a limit value for occupational health) is for the larger part well below the limit values (Table 7 part 1). For benzene (which is carcinogenic), however, the corrected inhalation for continuous exposure time during at least a full week
Conclusion
At first instance the health risks for people (among which many volunteers) cleaning the beaches and the birds immediately following the fuel oil #6 spillage resulting from the wreckage of the ‘Erika’ appeared to be considerable. Hence there was an urgent need for an evaluation of these risks to allow the local and national authorities to take proper measures. The risk estimation, however, was hampered by (1) a general lack of detailed chemical–analytical and exposure data of this particular
Acknowledgements
I thank Drs. Ada Knaap, Hans Könemann, Cees van Leeuwen and Moniek Pieters of the RIVM Centre for Substances and Risk Assessment for their valuable contributions and for critically reviewing the manuscripts of the reports on which this article is based. In addition I appreciate the valuable comments of Drs. Ada Knaap and Hans Könemann on this article's manuscript. I greatly valued the excellent co-operation with Dr. André Cicolella (Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques
References (22)
- ATSDR, 1995a. Toxicological profile for fuel oils. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service,...
- ATSDR, 1995b. Toxicological profile for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (update). US Department of Health and Human...
- ATSDR, 1995c. Toxicological profile for naphthalene (update). US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health...
- ATSDR, 1999. Toxicological profile for total petroleum hydrocarbons. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public...
- Baars, A.J., Theelen, R.M.C., Janssen, P.J.C.M., Hesse, J.M., Van Apeldoorn, M.E., Meijerink, M.C.M., Verdam, L.,...
- Boudet, C., Chemin, F., Bois, F., 2000. Evaluation du risque sanitaire de la marée noire consécutive au naufrage de...
- Bremmer, H.J., Van Veen, M.P., 2000. Factsheet algemeen—randvoorwaarden en betrouwbaarheid, ventilatie, kamergrootte,...
- Brinkman, F.J.J., Knaap, A.G.A.C., Kramers, P.G.N., Aalbers, Th.G., Jekel, A.A., Keijzer, J., Kliest, J.J.G., Michel,...
- CONCAWE (the Oil Companies’ Organisation for Environmental and Health Protection), 1998. Heavy fuel oils. Product...
- IARC, 1987. Overall evaluations of carcinogenicity—an updating of IARC monographs volumes 1 to 42. International Agency...
Cited by (0)
- ☆
This article is based on RIVM-CSR report no. 000/383 CSR WK/tk dated 19 April 2000 and the addendum report (same number) dated 7 June 2000.