Association between health information, use of protective devices and occurrence of acute health problems in the Prestige oil spill clean-up in Asturias and Cantabria (Spain): a cross-sectional study

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-6-1

BMC Public Health

Volume 6

Viewing options:

Abstract
Full text
PDF (259KB)

Associated material:

Related literature:

Articles citing this article
on BioMed Central
on Google Scholar
on ISI Web of Science
on PubMed Central
Other articles by authors
on Google Scholar

Carrasco JM
Lope V
Pérez-Gómez B
Aragonés N
Suárez B
López-Abente G
Rodríguez-Artalejo F
Pollán M

on PubMed

Carrasco JM
Lope V
Pérez-Gómez B
Aragonés N
Suárez B
López-Abente G
Rodríguez-Artalejo F
Pollán M
Related articles/pages
on Google

on Google Scholar

on PubMed

Tools:

Post to:

Research article

Association between health information, use of protective devices and occurrence of acute health problems in the Prestige oil spill clean-up in Asturias and Cantabria (Spain): a cross-sectional study

José Miguel Carrasco¹^* , Virginia Lope¹^* , Beatriz Pérez-Gómez¹ , Nuria Aragonés¹ , Berta Suárez¹ , Gonzalo López-Abente¹ , Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo² and Marina Pollán¹

¹Environmental Epidemiology and Cancer Unit, National Centre for Epidemiology, Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid, Spain

²Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

BMC Public Health 2006, 6:1doi:10.1186/1471-2458-6-1


Published:	3 January 2006

Abstract

Background

This paper examines the association between use of protective devices, frequency of acute health problems and health-protection information received by participants engaged in the Prestige oil spill clean-up in Asturias and Cantabria, Spain.

Methods

We studied 133 seamen, 135 bird cleaners, 266 volunteers and 265 paid workers selected by random sampling, stratified by type of worker and number of working days. Information was collected by telephone interview conducted in June 2003. The association of interest was summarized, using odds ratios (OR) obtained from logistic regression.

Results

Health-protection briefing was associated with use of protective devices and clothing. Uninformed subjects registered a significant excess risk of itchy eyes (OR:2.89; 95%CI:1.21–6.90), nausea/vomiting/dizziness (OR:2.25; 95%CI:1.17–4.32) and throat and respiratory problems (OR:2.30; 95%CI:1.15–4.61). There was a noteworthy significant excess risk of headaches (OR:3.86: 95%CI:1.74–8.54) and respiratory problems (OR:2.43; 95%CI:1.02–5.79) among uninformed paid workers. Seamen, the group most exposed to the fuel-oil, were the worst informed and registered the highest frequency of toxicological problems.

Conclusion

Proper health-protection briefing was associated with greater use of protective devices and lower frequency of health problems. Among seamen, however, the results indicate poorer dissemination of information and the need of specific guidelines for removing fuel-oil at sea.