Tag Archives: Human Health

Grad Student Altomare Analyzes Health Risks to Children Playing in Oiled Beaches

6758a — University of Texas Health Science Center Ph.D. student Tanu Altomare works with a child participant in the Beach Exposure And Child HEalth Study (BEACHES) project. (Photo by Helena Solo-Gabriele)

Deepwater Horizon oil impacted over 1,700 km of Gulf of Mexico coastline and prompted 89 beach closures, largely due to uncertainty about health risks associated with oil contamination. Compared to adults, children spend more time in the sand when at the beach and touch their face more often, increasing potential exposure to contaminants through skin contact or ingestion. Tanu Altomare analyzed data quantifying children’s beach behaviors to inform a model evaluating health risks to young children when playing on oil-contaminated beaches. Responders can use the model’s assessments when making decisions about beach closures and communicating risks to the public when future pollutant events happen.

Tanu was a Ph.D. student with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s School of Public Health and a GoMRI Scholar with the project Beach Exposure And Child HEalth Study (BEACHES).

Her Path

6758b — Members of the Beach Exposure And Child HEalth Study (BEACHES) team during a field study at Seawall Beach in Galveston, Texas. (L-R): Rosalia Guerrero, Dr. Helena Solo-Gabriele, Lindsey Clark, Dr. Alesia Ferguson, Dr. Maribeth Gidley, Pauline Williams, Lonnie Jones, Larissa Montas, Devon Hood, Graham Reid, Tanu Altomare, Hanna Perone, and Kyra Rattler. (Provided by Tanu Altomare)

When Tanu was a microbiology student at the University of Houston-Downtown, a guest lecturer discussed environmental risk assessments of pollutants in or near residential homes. Tanu had been conducting laboratory experiments but wondered if the long stretches without human interaction were right for her. By contrast, the lecturer’s work that combined environmental science, epidemiology, and social and behavioral science fascinated her.

While researching graduate schools, Tanu toured the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and subsequently accepted a graduate research position toward a Master of Public Health. She worked closely with Dr. Kristina Mena investigating the factors influencing microbial load (the number and type of microorganisms contaminating a water body) in two Galveston Bay marinas and hoped to complete a doctorate under her mentorship. Tanu described her research interests to Dr. Mena, who recommended the GoMRI-funded BEACHES project exploring how interactions between people’s behavior and the environment influence their health – concepts that first got Tanu interested in public health.

“I’ve lived in Houston for nearly 20 years, and I’ve been present for a variety of natural and man-made disasters, including Hurricane Harvey and the Deepwater Horizon spill,” said Tanu. “I’ve seen firsthand how those events affected my community, so I’ve always had a personal stake in better understanding the effects of disaster and behavior on health and wellbeing.”

Her Work

6758c — Members of the Beach Exposure And Child HEalth Study (BEACHES) project attend the 2020 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference. (L-R) Dr. Helena Solo-Gabriele, Dr. Maribeth Gidley, Dr. Alesia Ferguson, Larissa Montas, Dr. Ashok Dwivedi, Dr. Kristina Mena, Tanu Altomare, Lara Tomenchok, and Junfei Xia. (Provided by Tanu Altomare)

The BEACHES team is developing an assessment platform that will provide health risk information on children playing at oil-contaminated beaches. The model currently uses benchmarks established in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Exposure Factors Handbook to determine health risk, but real-time data will help refine these benchmarks so that they are applicable to children of different ages, genders, and demographics. Tanu and her fellow BEACHES researchers video recorded children (with guardian permission) playing in Florida and Texas beach sands over a ten-day period. The team monitored behaviors that would affect children’s exposure risks, especially how often they touched their mouths, the frequency and length of time they spent in water and sand, and how much sand stuck to their hands and bodies when their skin was wet, dry, or had sunscreen on it.

Tanu analyzed the video data using a risk assessment software called Crystal Ball, which returns a best-case, worst-case, and most likely outcome for a scenario. Her preliminary analyses suggest that exposure frequency (how many days per year children go to the beach) had the greatest influence on health risk estimates out of the factors analyzed so far. This observation supports the expectation that factors with a wide range of variability like exposure frequency will influence risk estimates more strongly than variables like body weight or skin surface area, which show little fluctuation among children. However, she is eager to see how estimates change once data on soil intake rate (oral exposure), adherence factor (skin exposure), and inhalation rate are incorporated into the model.

“I think this model will be especially useful for agencies involved in communicating advisories and other health information to the public. Instead of blanket advisories, they can provide a more thorough explanation of how and why the public should or should not avoid certain beach-related activities following a disaster event,” said Tanu. “For example, [the observations about exposure frequency] can be valuable for families living in Gulf communities, because they tend to visit beaches more often than families who only go once or twice a year.”

Her Learning

Working with an interdisciplinary group showed Tanu how real-world science unfolds, with researchers relying on each other to fill in different pieces of a larger puzzle. A memorable moment for Tanu was hearing Dr. Alesia Ferguson’s observations about their video recordings, who commented that children behaved differently depending on if their mother, father, or siblings were present and that there were behavioral trends for children of different racial backgrounds. “At that moment, the multitude of factors that play into how a person interacts with their environment really hit home,” said Tanu. “Sometimes, I get narrowly focused on the scientific parts of the equations, like the chemical concentrations, but there is a human factor that has a profound effect on health outcomes.”

As a member of the GoMRI community, Tanu interacted with an extensive network of researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders. When she began her doctoral research, Tanu anticipated that her advisor would be her main mentoring resource, but she also received feedback from many GoMRI community members. She attended a graduate student luncheon at the 2020 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference, where she engaged with fellow students and experts from diverse fields. “The leaders of GoMRI have taught me a lot of what it means to be a researcher and collaborator,” she said. “The most important piece of advice I received at the luncheon was to always be open to new projects and opportunities, because it opens up so many new avenues for research and networking.”

Tanu also learned the importance of talking with her advisor about the future, even when she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. “A lot of students know they want to pursue a career in science but don’t know all their options, and that can be frustrating,” she said. “I had a vague, almost incoherent idea what I was interested in, but Dr. Mena helped me form a concrete idea. She took my interests and connected it to an awesome project!”

Tanu completed her Public Health doctorate and is seeking opportunities where she can continue working with the marine environment and children’s health.

Praise for Tanu

Dr. Mena described Tanu as an engaging student and a forward-thinking researcher, who asks the right questions about things that others may overlook. “Tanu was an integral part of the field work for this study as well as the risk assessment component,” she said. “She was not only a remarkable student, but she is also an exceptional person. I look forward to hearing about her future contributions.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Tanu Altomare and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

By Stephanie Ellis and Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact sellis@ngi.msstate.edu for questions or comments.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010-2020 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Montas Assesses Oil Spill Health Risks to Children During Beach Play

6627a — University of Miami graduate student Larissa Montas. (Photo provided by Larissa Montas)

The Deepwater Horizon incident affected more than 1,700 km of Gulf of Mexico coastline. Chemical compounds from the oil spill posed a risk to human health, especially children whose play behaviors often bring them in direct contact with sand and water. To better understand these risks, researchers are quantifying how children play at the beach and combining those data with the different types and levels of oil spill compounds that reached shorelines.

Larissa Montas is developing an algorithm to predict the concentrations and distributions of oil compounds along beaches. Her novel algorithm will contribute to a larger risk assessment platform that assesses cumulative and aggregate risks to children’s health from oil spill compounds. These assessments can help inform future spill response decisions, including beach closures.

Larissa is a Ph.D. student with the University of Miami’s Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department and a GoMRI Scholar with Beach Exposure And Child HEalth Study (BEACHES).

Her Path

6627b — The Beach Exposure and Child Health Study (BEACHES) research team. (L-R) Rosalia Guerrero (research scientist), Dr. Helena Solo-Gabriele (Principal Investigator), Lindsey Clark (master’s student), Dr. Alesia Ferguson (Co-Principal Investigator), Dr. Maribeth Gidley (research scientist), Pauline Williams (community volunteer), Lonnie Jones (community volunteer), Larissa Montas (Ph.D. student), Devon Brown, Graham Reid (community volunteer), Tanu (Uppal) Altomare (Ph.D. student), Hanna Perone (master’s student), and Kyra Rattler (undergraduate student). (Photo provided by Larissa Montas) University of Miami Ph.D. student Larissa Montas (left, blue shirt) helps collect information about children’s beach play behavior. The team videotaped children pressing their hand on a sand tray and used a digital scale to record the hand press and determine how much sand adhered to the hands. They also traced each child’s hand on paper and photographed it to measure hand surface area. Here, Montas holds the video camera while University of Miami MD/MPH student Hanna Perone (foreground) holds a hand trace and University of Houston undergraduate student Leslie Rojas assists a child participant. (Photo provided by Larissa Montas)

Larissa describes science as her “first love” and can’t recall a time when she wasn’t involved with science in some way. Growing up in a seaside town, she created strong ties to the beach. The more she learned about beach ecosystems, the more her curiosity about environmental science deepened. Later, she completed undergraduate degrees in civil and environmental engineering and a master’s degree in environmental engineering at the University of Miami. While applying to doctoral programs, Larissa received an email from one of her previous professors, Dr. Helena Solo-Gabriele, advertising a graduate research opportunity with her lab. Larissa applied and joined Dr. Solo-Gabriele’s team investigating children’s health risks to oil spill compounds in beach environments.

“I am deeply interested in exploring the integrated relationship between the environment and human health, so our team’s research was a perfect match to my interests,” said Larissa. “Children’s environmental health is a topic close to my heart, as children are more vulnerable to environmental health issues.”

Her Work

Following Deepwater Horizon, responders and researchers collected tens of thousands of seawater, sediment, and atmospheric samples. The first phase of Larissa’s research was to sort this historical data. Using the General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME)’s predicted timing of oil spill impacts, she categorized the data by time and space: impacted sites prior to oil impact, impacted sites after oil impact, and unimpacted sites. She also assisted efforts led by Dr. Alesia Ferguson to video record (with guardian permission) children’s beach play activities and patterns to characterize children’s interactions with sand and other potential sources of oil contamination. She is currently developing an algorithm that will utilize a fate and transport model’s outputs for future predictions of concentrations of individual toxic oil compounds that might reach nearshore waters and sand.

The second phase of Larissa’s research focuses on analyzing oil compounds associated with Deepwater Horizon that were identified as toxic. Using an oil spill fate and transport model, she tracks how long it will take each compound to reach the beach environment. Then, she incorporates existing data about the compound’s physical and chemical properties to predict how much it should be degraded when it reaches the nearshore environment. “Some of the oil compounds won’t get there at all because they will be completely degraded or become airborne before arrival,” explained Larissa. “But, most of them will, and we need to know how much and what health risks are associated with those concentrations.” She uses her results to generate concentration-frequency distributions, a type of histogram that represents how often a measured concentration falls within a certain range in sand/marsh sediment, water, and tar. She then compares concentration ratios of the different compounds to the original source oil to identify changes in the oil’s overall composition by the time it reaches the beach environment.

6627c — University of Miami Ph.D. student Larissa Montas (left, blue shirt) helps collect information about children’s beach play behavior. The team videotaped children pressing their hand on a sand tray and used a digital scale to record the hand press and determine how much sand adhered to the hands. They also traced each child’s hand on paper and photographed it to measure hand surface area. Here, Montas holds the video camera while University of Miami MD/MPH student Hanna Perone (foreground) holds a hand trace and University of Houston undergraduate student Leslie Rojas assists a child participant. (Photo provided by Larissa Montas)

The third phase of Larissa’s research uses atmospheric remote sensing to estimate the impacts of toxic airborne compounds associated with Deepwater Horizon on beach environments. She assists Dr. Naresh Kumar to assess changes in remotely-sensed parameters immediately before and after the spill, collocated with meteorological conditions and adjusted using region specific regression. Using this approach, researchers can develop beach-specific concentrations of airborne compounds for future oil spill exposure studies.

Larissa’s research will contribute to an assessment platform providing health risk information for children swimming or playing at oil-impacted beaches. “Children’s behavioral patterns make them more vulnerable than adults, and they have more-intimate contact with the sand due to play activities such as burying themselves in the sand,” said Larissa. “Our risk assessment platform aims to help improve estimations about children’s exposures and risks to toxic oil compounds and inform decision makers and first responders about toxic compound concentrations when an oil slick approaches the nearshore environment.”

Her Learning

Working with Dr. Solo-Gabriele taught Larissa that the rigorous scientific process can also be an exciting, creative, and collaborative process. One of Larissa’s favorite memories was assisting with fieldwork that quantified children’s beach play activities. The team worked from early morning to late evening collecting data on over 100 children playing at four beaches in Florida and Texas. “The whole BEACHES team came together, and the PIs worked hard side-by-side with the students,” said Larissa. “It was collaboration at its best and gave me the opportunity to learn about the work that Co-PIs Dr. Alicia Ferguson and Dr. Kristi Mena are leading.”

Larissa’s journey has shown her that exploring different fields and seeking guidance from mentors are important goals for students considering a scientific career. “Students’ motivations are as varied as they are as individuals,” she said. “A good way to start is to take initiative and volunteer for a project that matches your interests. Many professors like giving advice. Don’t be afraid to seek out mentors who can help you understand where to take that first step.”

After graduating, Larissa wants to continue interdisciplinary research investigating environmental contaminants and human health.

Praise for Larissa

Dr. Solo-Gabriele said that Larissa was at the top of her list when recruiting graduate students for her GoMRI project. She described Larissa as having “an engineering mind,” praising her methodical approach to research and detailed-oriented personality. She explained that Larissa’s laboratory experience gave her an advantage when analyzing the complex chemical composition of oil in air, water, and sediments. “She understands the details of the analytical techniques and the difficulties that may occur when trying to compare the results from different laboratories,” said Dr. Solo-Gabriele. “Larissa has submitted a peer-reviewed journal article [based on her research] that provides insight to the natural background concentrations of oil spill compounds, which is useful for identifying the excess risks associated with oil spill impacts along coastal regions.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Larissa Montas and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

By Stephanie Ellis and Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact sellis@ngi.msstate.edu for questions or comments.

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© Copyright 2010-2019 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Keating Surveys Children and Families for Long-Term Oil Spill Impacts

6432a — Kathryn Keating. (Provided by Kathryn Keating)

Following the Deepwater Horizon incident, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness surveyed households in highly-affected areas of Louisiana to track the event’s impacts on the physical and social health of coastal families and their communities. Kathryn Keating facilitates subsequent surveys to assess long-term impacts and identify attributes of children and families that are associated with resilience or vulnerability to negative oil spill impacts. The survey’s longitudinal data will help explain how people recover and rebound after a disaster and provide guidance to those who create disaster response plans and organize community support.

Kathryn is a Ph.D. student with the Louisiana State University’s Department of Sociology and a GoMRI Scholar with the project Understanding Resilience Attributes for Children, Youth, and Communities in the Wake of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Her Path

6432b — Kathryn Keating, Tim Slack, and field personnel in New Orleans after completing the second survey wave. Front: Jyaphia Christos-Rodgers; Back (L-R): Aspen Nero, Liz Cutright, and Nikki Fernandes, Kathryn Keating, and Tim Slack. (Provided by Kathryn Keating)

Kathryn grew up in Indiana and Central Florida, molding her into a “proud Hoosier” with ties to the Gulf of Mexico. She entered an undergraduate program at Indiana University as a non-traditional adult student after nearly a decade away and discovered her interest in sociology during a “Deviant Behavior and Social Control” course. She took classes in sociology and social work, including a year-long practicum at a local hospital that sparked her interest in medical social work. Kathryn also worked part-time at the county’s emergency youth shelter and volunteered at local social service agencies. She graduated with dual bachelor’s degrees in sociology and social work in 2015.

Kathryn entered Portland State University’s Master of Social Work program in 2015, where she completed a practicum for training mental health professionals to work with underserved populations. While working at a rural Oregon primary care clinic, she developed a passion for working in healthcare and crisis settings in rural areas, where access to and interaction with health and mental health care systems can be significantly different than urban settings. Kathryn decided to continue her development as a “hybrid scholar” through a sociology doctoral program at Louisiana State University in 2016. Once in Louisiana, she became a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). She joined Dr. Tim Slack’s GoMRI-funded project Resilient Children, Youth, and Communities (RCYC) as a research assistant at Louisiana State University and completed a second sociology master’s degree while conducting her Ph.D. research.

“As a person who has lived and worked in rural places for most of my life, I prefer work that allows me to engage with people living in small communities and rural areas,” said Kathryn. “Once I got the ball rolling with my education, I wanted to do right by myself and those who have supported me by making the most of the opportunities I’ve been given while staying true to my values and remembering where I’m from.”

Her Work

6432c — Group photo in May 2018 following a week-long intensive training for field personnel involved in the third survey wave. Back (L-R): Adele Tennyson, Jeremy Brooks, Kathryn Keating, Ingrid Bradford, Terrance Johnson; Middle (L-R): Elizabeth Gelvin, Amelia Bowers, Sharon Foret; Front (L-R): Barbara Redding, Jyaphia Christos-Rodgers (Photo by Jonathan Sury)

Kathryn’s research utilizes longitudinal surveys of Louisiana families that build on 2014 data collected by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation-funded Gulf Coast Population Impact Study (GCPI), led by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institution, which surveyed households in randomly selected coastal communities who experienced high rates of oiled shorelines and BP compensation claims. The RCYC group conducted a second wave of follow up surveys with the GCPI cohort in 2016 – 2017, and a third wave that is currently underway. “A repeated cross-sectional survey can tell you how the overall population of interest is changing, but not about changes within units of analysis such as individuals, families, or households,” explained Kathryn. “A longitudinal panel survey is a particular type of design where the same sample of people are surveyed at different points in time. By providing repeated measures from the same people at different time points, this type of survey allows us to assess changes in the experiences of individuals over time.”

Kathryn helps coordinate and manage an eight-person field team, who collects follow-up data from families across seven Louisiana parishes. The team conducts face-to-face interviews in participants’ homes with the same parent every two years and collects information about their spill-related experiences, including economic changes, physical and mental health symptoms, healthcare access, neighborhood and community characteristics, and social media use. She and her team also host hour-long focus groups with study participants in each affected community to collect more in-depth qualitative information related to the survey topics.

6432d — Tim Slack and Kathryn Keating during a poster presentation of first- and second-wave data analyses at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. (Provided by Kathryn Keating)

Kathryn’s master’s research included results from the first- and second- wave surveys and focus groups on how affected families access and interact with community healthcare resources. She used this data to examine how federal and state entities define healthcare need and how these definitions relate to the actual needs of those affected by Deepwater Horizon. She then integrated her findings with data from the Health Resources and Services Administration to further establish how community-level health needs relate to individual recovery from the spill. Her Ph.D. research builds on her master’s work and includes third-wave survey data and qualitative focus group responses to examine change-over-time in child and family disaster outcomes and the role of healthcare and primary care resources in disaster resilience. Kathryn recently participated in a brief interview highlighting her perspectives on RCYC research and their current activities.

Her Learning

Working with Dr. Slack and the RCYC project, Kathryn gained first-hand experience conducting social research with an interdisciplinary team and learned important lessons about communicating research to stakeholder groups. She explained that her background in direct-service provision had provided little experience in the professional side of academia. Dr. Slack’s mentorship helped her navigate institutional processes and understand norms in the field of sociology. “From the start, Dr. Slack conveyed a sense of trust and support for me as a graduate student that gave me confidence to take on responsibility and challenge myself within our team,” said Kathryn. “I hope to be involved in mentoring and advising others someday and plan to afford them the same respect and trust.”

Kathryn’s experiences as a member of the GoMRI science community helped her develop specialized research skills and meaningful relationships with south Louisiana residents. She participated in the annual Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference and gained experience in sharing her research, contributing her interdisciplinary perspective as a sociologist and social worker, and learning to better understand multiple aspects of the Deepwater Horizon incident. “Several members of the RCYC team are either in New Orleans or at Columbia University in New York, so a great deal of our communication is remote,” she added. “Some of my best memories have been when we are able to collaborate in person. I enjoy being able to see my colleagues in real life, laugh with them, and have space for slower conversation.”

Her Future

Kathryn was named a 2018 – 2019 Gulf Research Program Science Policy Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences, which is separate from her RCYC research. She will spend one year as a fellow working at the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council in New Orleans, where science and policy intersect in the region. “The upcoming fellowship and my time with RCYC have given me a chance to build ongoing relationships and generate knowledge with people in the Gulf region and specifically south Louisiana – these ties are an important consideration for me going forward.”

Kathryn hopes to work in policy-oriented and applied research related to social services, public health, and mental health. She would love to teach or mentor social science students in their research methods. She suggests that students who are interested in a social science career should focus on cultivation instead of competition. “Cultivation is the intentional choice to focus your energy on the parts of your work and non-work life that enliven your spirit and reflect your personal values, including your skills, relationships, and habits,” explained Kathryn. “Everyone’s path is unique. Many learners become involved in a field like social work out of desire to enact social change. For those with a propensity towards empirical inquiry, policy-oriented research can be an exciting and surprising way to engage.”

Praise for Kathryn

Dr. Slack described Kathryn as a mature, conscientious, and dedicated researcher and student. He noted that her social work background and advanced social sciences training illustrates her abiding interest in bridging research and practice. He described her work as “invaluable” as the project’s study coordinator, which included managing human resources, accounting, logistics, and team-building for field interviewers and handling procedures for respondent incentives and organizing focus groups.

“Kathryn has been very adept at understanding the technical side of data collection while also staying attuned to the human side of research team management and human-based research,” said Slack. “Many people can do one or the other, but Kathryn has shown a unique capacity to balance these different dimensions of her job. I cannot emphasize enough how important she is to the success of this effort.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Kathryn Keating and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

By Stephanie Ellis and Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact sellis@ngi.msstate.edu for questions or comments.

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© Copyright 2010-2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Lichtler Examines Mammalian Cell Response to Oil Exposure

6343a — Rebecca discusses future research plans. (Photo by Rick Olivier)

Oil contains thousands of different compounds that each affect the environment and living organisms differently. While some compounds have been well-studied, there are exponentially more that have not. Rebecca Lichtler conducts toxicity, gene expression, and gene mutation studies on oil-exposed mammal cells to determine if and how different oil compounds affect cell health.

Rebecca is a Ph.D. student with Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a GoMRI Scholar with the project Toxicological Properties of Specific Aromatic Hydrocarbons Isolated from Fresh and Aged Crude Oil from the Deepwater Horizon Spill.

Her Path

Rebecca’s parents are scientists who sparked her early curiosity about scientific research. She began her journey as an undergraduate student at Tulane University studying cell and molecular biology, but felt like something was missing. Hoping to get involved in science that had a deeper connection to human health, she switched to the university’s public health program and changed her minor to cell and molecular biology. During a foundations course in environmental health, Rebecca met Dr. Jeffrey Wickliffe and took an undergraduate research position in his lab. As she neared graduation, Wickliffe invited her to apply for a doctoral student position in his lab conducting GoMRI-funded research, which she did after entering the School of Public Health’s environmental health sciences program.

“Of all the undergraduates that I’ve had experience with, Rebecca was far and away the most dedicated,” recalls Wickliffe. “I don’t think this department has ever had a Ph.D. student come straight out of an undergraduate program, but she’s probably one of the top Ph.D. students we have in the department right now. It has set the bar so that other [professors] might be less averse to taking on Ph.D. students coming directly from undergraduate studies.”

Her Work

6343b — Rebecca prepares PAH stock solutions. (Photo by Charles Miller)

Rebecca conducts oil exposure experiments on mouse lung cells, which represent a common route of exposure (respiration), and on liver cells, the organ most associated with metabolizing toxic chemicals. She uses three methods to analyze different polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and determine the most effective and efficient techniques for quantifying toxicity. “We’re trying find a balance between convenience and accuracy. Convenience is important because we get the information in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable amount of money, but we also need that information to be as reliable and detailed as possible,” said Rebecca. “If an oil spill happens we can take a sample of the oil, break down the compounds, and know which ones are the most toxic that we need to worry about.”

The first approach uses a cytotoxicity test to determine how different compounds affect the cells’ ability to grow and survive after exposure. She exposes the cells to individual compounds for 6 hours followed by a 72-hour recovery period. Then she treats the cells with a pink fluorescent dye (sulforhodamine B) and uses a spectrophotometer to determine the amount of fluorescence. The proportion of color corresponds to healthy cells, which will have more color than cells whose growth was slowed or stopped by PAH exposure. She compares results between treatments to determine each tested compound’s relative toxicity.

6343c — Rebecca subcultures mouse liver cells in preparation for a PAH-exposure cytotoxicity assay. (Photo by Rick Olivier)

The second approach uses a gene expression test to measure toxicity. Certain genes that metabolize toxic compounds (CYP1A1 and CYP1B1) are known to be upregulated, or more expressed, when cells are exposed to PAHs. Rebecca isolates the cells’ RNA (the expressed part of the DNA) and uses quantitative polymerase chain reaction to detect if CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 expression is increased after PAH exposure, which would indicate that exposure was significant enough to trigger the upregulation.

The third method involves genetic mutation assays, which require that cells recover for one week after exposure to allow mutations to become apparent. Lipids and proteins that appear on the cell surface make up the cells’ membrane. However, if the gene producing that protein is mutated, the proteins will not appear. Rebecca treats exposed cells with antibodies that “stain” protein markers and make them detectable using a flow cytometer. The more cells that lack a protein marker, the more mutagenic effects the PAH compound had on the cells. She plans to compare these results to the cytotoxicity results to determine if the number of mutations correlate with the growth inhibitions observed in her cytotoxicity studies.

The mutation assays are still in their early stages, but Rebecca is already seeing interesting results. The cytotoxicity experiments revealed a wide variation of toxicity and identified the oil compounds with a greater toxic effect than other compounds. However, the gene expression tests did not show those significant differences in toxicity. “The degree of upregulation does not significantly vary between compounds, regardless of their toxicity,” explained Rebecca. “This suggests that the gene expression test may not be a useful tool to determine the extent of toxicity.”

Rebecca hopes that her research will help identify which compounds will have the most significant human health impacts. “Being in New Orleans surrounded by so many people that are involved with the Gulf day-to-day and meeting people whose lives were affected after the spill has shown me how important this work is to people’s everyday lives,” she said. “It’s the whole reason I got into this field and makes my work really gratifying.”

Her Learning

One of Rebecca’s most valuable experiences working in Wickliffe’s lab has been to expand her own learning by teaching others. Their lab often includes inexperienced undergraduate researchers, and Rebecca finds that teaching them forces her to confront her own understanding of the techniques and conceptual framework. “If you can’t answer someone else’s question, then you don’t know it well enough yourself,” she said. “For me, the most helpful way of learning is actually teaching!”

Her Future

Rebecca hopes to continue working in research, perhaps in a post-doc position, and eventually become a professor with her own lab. She says that students interested in a scientific career should get involved in labs as early as possible. “A lot of students think that they have to work in a lab for free just to get any experience, but there are many supported positions available, even if it’s not in your dream field,” she said. “I’ve learned something from every lab I’ve been in even if it didn’t necessarily have to do with environmental health, whether it’s a technique or a way of thinking or a concept. Don’t stress if it’s not your dream topic – you’re going to learn something.”

Praise for Rebecca

Dr. Wickliffe describes Rebecca as a talented researcher who is able to quickly master difficult methods and protocols, pays attention to detail, and fosters a solid understanding of experimental design. “She knows when to use positive and negative controls, and she’s not averse to repeating experiments to verify and validate her findings.” He also praised her collaborative skills, highlighting her ability to offer constructive feedback to others while absorbing and valuing others’ opinions about her own work.

Dr. Charles Miller, the project’s principal investigator, describes her as one of their department’s most promising students, noting her strong work ethic such as working on a task before it has been assigned and eagerly accepting new ones. “She has a mix of the right personality traits to be a good scientist. I’ve seen her progress in learning to think critically about problems, ask the right questions, and formulate a plan to approach those questions,” he said. “People with all the right signs come along every now and then, and it’s like a nugget of gold when you find one. Anybody would be lucky to have her working in their lab.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Rebecca Lichtler and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

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Is It Safe? Examining Health Risks from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill left many tourists and residents questioning if oil and the dispersants used to keep oil from reaching the shore could make them sick. Scientists studied the health risks of lingering chemicals from the spill.

This fact sheet covers common questions, such as:

Is Gulf seafood safe to eat?
Are beaches safe to visit?
Is the water safe for swimming?
What to do if you come in contact with oil or tar at the beach?

Link to Factsheet PDF…

This work was made possible in part by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and in part by the Sea Grant programs of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi-Alabama. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.

Sea Grant Releases Fact Sheet on Beach, Water, and Seafood Safety after Oil Spill

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team released a publication that addresses the public’s questions about health safety after the Deepwater Horizon incident.

The fact sheet, Is it Safe? Examining Health Risks from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill succinctly explains findings from peer-reviewed studies and reports from state and federal agencies that investigated the safety of the beach, water, and seafood since the spill.

More in-depth information is available in the following Sea Grant publications:

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team synthesizes peer-reviewed science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those who live and work across the Gulf Coast. Sea Grant offers oil-spill-related public seminars across the Gulf Coast.

Information about upcoming Sea Grant science seminars and recently-held events is available here. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team, click here.

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GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas) have partnered to create an oil spill science outreach program.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010-2017 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Parks Assesses How Disasters and Social Factors Influence Human Health

Vanessa inside a helicopter at a heliport in Cut Off, LA, where offshore oil workers commute to and from work. (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

A person’s socioeconomic position can influence their health and well-being, and disasters can place additional strain on those whose health and well-being are already compromised.

Vanessa Parks compiles and analyzes data on Gulf Coast communities that explores how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected mental and physical health and how social factors contributed to post-disaster health outcomes. “I am interested in what contributes to better health outcomes, because I want to help reduce health inequalities and inequities,” Vanessa said. “If residents have access to better economic resources and health care, they are better prepared for the traumatic impacts of disasters.”

Vanessa is a Ph.D. student in Louisiana State University’s sociology program and a GoMRI Scholar with the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC).

Her Path

RGC group photo at the Cut Off, LA, heliport. (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

Growing up, Vanessa was acutely aware of the public health concerns facing her hometown of Memphis, including high obesity rates, teen pregnancy, and HIV infection. However, those concerns rarely affected her affluent and largely white suburb. She first encountered the interrelationship between socioeconomic position and health working as a part-time clerk at a bankruptcy law firm while attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She noticed that many clients declared bankruptcy because they were unable to pay their medical bills, even if they previously had one or more stable, well-paying jobs. She realized that a person needs a deep reservoir of resources, as being sick or disabled can impair one’s ability to find work while medical expenses accrue.

Vanessa enrolled in the University of Mississippi’s sociology masters’ program and studied the role that social and economic factors play in a person’s health. She conducted numerous program evaluations related to health, education, and workforce development in the Mississippi Delta. She continues to explore the link between socioeconomic factors and health as a sociology Ph.D. student at LSU. CRGC received funding from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) soon after Vanessa began her doctoral program in 2014, and she was eager to get involved. She met Dr. Rajeev Ramchand through the program and joined his research group studying human health and well-being as it relates to environmental stressors.

Her Work

Vanessa and fellow GoMRI Scholar Jacqueline Fiore in front of a CRGC poster at the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference. (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

Vanessa’s research focuses on the mental and physical health of Gulf Coast communities who recently suffered from a major hurricane (Katrina) and the largest oil spill in U.S history (Deepwater Horizon). She began her research with a literature review of 1,477 medical publications documenting oil spills’ known health impacts and compiled the data into a searchable, publicly available database. Her research group used this information to develop the Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity among Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG). This survey was a household-level assessment of Deepwater Horizon impacts on social, economic, and health indices for coastal counties and parishes in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Vanessa also prepared a detailed guide to assist researchers when utilizing the survey data, including narrative information and relevant citations.

Vanessa and her team compiled STRONG survey data collected from approximately 2,500 Gulf residents. She is analyzing the survey data to investigate how factors such as occupation and community relationships contribute to the way a disaster impacts a person’s health, particularly mental health. The results of her research will help health care providers, community leaders, and policy makers make informed decisions to improve health-related outcomes when future disasters happen.

Her Learning

Vanessa (center) touring a seafood processing plant in Bayou La Batre, AL, with fellow CRGC grad students, Amanda Edelman (left) and Chelsea Adams (right). (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

Vanessa’s use of medical journals for her literature review of oil spills’ health impacts introduced her to public health research methods and helped her identify how social scientists might use this knowledge. “It showed me the enormous potential of my work to inform other researchers, community leaders, and healthcare professionals,” said Vanessa.

Presenting her research at the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference was another learning opportunity for Vanessa. It was her group’s first opportunity to share the STRONG survey’s findings publicly with a broad audience. While preparing her presentation, she solicited feedback from colleagues in diverse fields and incorporated their suggestions. Despite feeling nervous, the experience improved Vanessa’s self-confidence as a researcher. “Sometimes we only want to focus on one perspective, theory, or method, but it’s extremely important to integrate others’ expertise,” she said.

Her Future

Vanessa intends to pursue a career conducting applied interdisciplinary research and work with needs-based research projects addressing disparities in health and well-being. She advises students considering a career in science to be flexible and open to new opportunities. “[Conducting Ph.D. research in Baton Rouge while working with an epidemiologist in Washington, D.C.] may seem like an unconventional arrangement, but it provided me with opportunities I couldn’t have expected,” she said.

Praise for Vanessa

Vanessa (left) with Ramchand and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (center). (Photo by Rajeev Ramchand)

Ramchand describes Vanessa as “an intelligent, well-poised, and articulate graduate student.” He explained that she is not only a thoughtful and hard-working researcher but also a supportive mentor and colleague, accompanying Ramchand to the launch of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ “Veterans for Responsible Solutions” initiative. Vanessa’s presentation at the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference exceeded Ramchand’s expectations for a graduate student and was on par with that of a seasoned researcher. “I am confident that she will continue to conduct thoughtful, important, practical, and informative research that will improve community resilience after disasters. I look forward to learning more from her,” he concluded.

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Vanessa Parks and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CRGC website to learn more about their work.

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© Copyright 2010- 2017 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Resource: CRGC Releases Database of Oil Spill Claim Sources

4448/4489 Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, there has been extensive data collection across the Gulf of Mexico region to better understand the economic impacts of the disaster, particularly on the fishing, seafood, and tourism industries in Gulf Coastal communities that were affected by the spill. There has also been a need to locate claims related to the oil spill— either made or paid out.

The new resource uses a variety of potential sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, to help businesses, researchers, community members, and other stakeholders locate information about fisheries, tourism, and oil spill claims. The database is intended to introduce users to information sources that may be less widely known than standard economic activity databases.

Database of Potential Sources on Fisheries, Tourism, and Oil Spill Claims

RFP-V Slack: Resilience Attributes for Children, Youth, and Communities in Deepwater Horizon

The Understanding Resilience Attributes for Children, Youth, and Communities in the Wake of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill project is lead by Tim Slack, Louisiana State University.

Dr. Tim Slack

This proposal outlines a research agenda to assess the public health impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, with special emphasis on the impacts of the disaster on children and their families over time. The project will leverage face-to-face household interview data (N=692) collected by Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) in 2014 on child and family health impacts in DH spill affected areas to build a three wave longitudinal data set with the 91% (N=629) of respondents who agreed to participate in subsequent follow up surveys.

Specifically, the proposed research asks the following research questions: Q1: What are the impacts of disaster-related trauma on children and families exposed to the 2010 DH oil spill, both in terms of physical and mental health effects as well as social consequences, such as increased risk behaviors, and decreased economic and educational opportunities? Q2: What is the relationship of primary and secondary stressors on these outcomes? Q3: What attributes of children and families are related to greater resilience to negative disaster-related impacts? Conversely, what attributes of children and families are related to greater vulnerability to negative impacts? Q3a: How does resilience/vulnerability vary across key sociodemographic groups, economic/occupational types (e.g., fishers and oil/gas workers), and families with different levels of social capital (e.g., social network structures and trust) or attachment to the social or natural environment? Q3b: What role do online social networks play in facilitating resilience? Q4: What sorts of issues are children confronting as a result of the oil spill and what sorts of measures do children, families, and community stakeholders see as being needed in response? Q5: How do all of the above change over time?

The ultimate goals of this research project are to: 1) Assess the public health and social impacts of the DH oil spill with a special focus on children and their families; 2) Identify attributes of children and families associated with resilience to negative disaster impacts and, conversely, attributes of children and families associated with vulnerability to negative disaster impacts; 3) Build a three wave panel dataset that allows for the assessment of within-unit change (i.e., children and their families) related to impacts, resilience, and vulnerability; 4) Train graduate students in disaster resilience research to help build the next generation of scholars dedicated to these issues; and 5) Make the information generated from this project actionable with the aim of helping facilitate disaster resilience and mitigate vulnerability.

This project was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) in the RFP-V funding program.

Fact Sheet: Sea Grant Releases Brochure on Oil Spill’s Mental Health Impacts

Click image to download PDF…

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team released a new informational brochure about how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected the mental health of some Gulf Coast residents. They reviewed published science and worked with experts to develop this brochure for a broad range of audiences, particularly those who live and work across the Gulf Coast.

The brochure The Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s impact on people’s health: Increases in stress and anxiety highlights impacts on individuals and coastal communities, which varied based on job type, community attachment, and previous disasters encountered.

The Sea Grant Team offers public seminars across the Gulf Coast. Click here to view upcoming science seminars and read about recently-held events. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team, click here.

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GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas) have partnered to create an oil spill science outreach program.

Grad Student Fiore Investigates Oil Spill Impacts on Gulf Economy and Fisheries Resiliency

Jacqueline Fiore is an economic analysis and policy Ph.D. student at Tulane University. (Provided by Jacqueline Fiore)

Natural and manmade disasters often involve long-term effects, but the majority of follow-up research tends to focus on the biophysical impacts rather than the social. Jacqueline Fiore, a Louisiana resident, understands how disasters such as hurricanes and oil spills can impact local industries, citizens, and ecosystems.

Jacqueline, a Ph.D. student in Tulane University’s Economic Analysis and Policy program and a GoMRI Scholar with the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC), uses applied economics to study the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s socioeconomic impacts on Gulf fisheries, assess their ability to recover, and help inform future oil spill response.

Her Path

Jacqueline’s journey into oil spill research began on the other side of the globe after she completed a bachelor’s degree in communications and two master’s degrees in epidemiology and economics. She worked for Michigan State University conducting epidemiological studies on malaria in Malawi, Africa with the National Institutes of Health Malawi International Center for Excellence in Malaria Research program. While she enjoyed this research, Jacqueline felt that she was still searching for her “niche” and realized that she wanted to learn econometric methods for public health research.

Jacqueline entered Tulane University’s Ph.D. program in economic analysis and policy. Her advisor Dr. K. Brent Venable introduced her to the CRGC studies on Gulf communities’ resilience to large-scale environmental disasters such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Jacqueline joined the project’s economics sub-team with her other two advisors RAND Corporation economists Drs. Craig Bond and Shanthi Nataraj and uses economic analysis to study the oil spill’s impact on the fishing industry.

Her Work

Jacqueline explained that the concept of resilience refers to human communities’ ability to respond, reorganize, and recover during and following a damaging event. She continued, “The dynamics of certain indicators, such as fisheries landings and revenues, can provide information about the abilities of fisheries to withstand and recover from oil spill events.”

Jacqueline presents her preliminary findings at the CRGC All-Hands Meeting in Mobile, Alabama, in June 2016. (Photo by Elizabeth Thornton of RAND Corporation)

Jacqueline contacted approximately 70 fisheries and tourism representatives for insight into the best data sources for her research and identified National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) commercial fishing data and state-maintained trip ticket datasets as the most comprehensive sources for pre- and post-spill data. She then worked with the CRGC economics sub-team to identify the best model specifications for analysis. She plans to combine these specifications with public- and restricted-access data to assess the spill’s effects on fisheries landings for select Gulf fish species.

Jacqueline’s research will quantify impacts to fisheries landings in pounds and revenues over time, accounting for variables such as number of fishing trips, type of gear used, and total area fished. She will complement anecdotal accounts and time-series data with an econometric assessment to place the spill’s economic impacts in context with the impacts of the 2005 hurricane season. Ultimately, Jacqueline hopes that her findings will help the fisheries industry and associated communities prepare for the way various Gulf fish species and fishers may respond to future disasters.

Her Learning

Jacqueline discovered that the research process can be challenging, particularly when working with human-related data. She recalls learning about and adhering to data confidentiality rules when using government datasets, adjusting her economic models to match each data source’s availability and variables, and even reframing how she communicated her findings to various audiences. For example, she adapted presentations of her preliminary results at CRGC All-Hands Meetings to better suit an audience without an economics background. Rather than focusing on her work’s detailed methods and techniques, which the audience would not be familiar with, she focused on graphs that illustrated trends in her findings.

Dominik’s Seafood Inc. – a shrimp processing plant in Bayou La Batre, Alabama – is one of the many local Gulf-area businesses that could benefit from Jacqueline’s research with the economics sub-team. (Photo by Jacqueline Fiore)

Jacqueline also experienced how her research can impact and be impacted by a wide range of people. CRGC All Hands Meetings are attended by the consortium’s technical and stake holder advisory committees, principal investigators, research staff, and graduate students, allowing Jacqueline to gain valuable feedback about her findings from a diverse audience. Fellow researchers offered insights into why some fish species may have been more affected after the spill than others and theorized how fisheries closures might cause some fish species to appear more resilient than they may actually be. She also met with Deepwater Horizon-impacted community members and observed seafood processing plants on a field trip to Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The plant’s employees may use her results to identify which fish species may be the most affected and to estimate financial impacts should another disaster occur.

Her Future

Jacqueline plans to complete her Ph.D. in spring 2018 and hopes to pursue a research program or program management position where she can use her training and expertise in economics and epidemiology. She is particularly interested in industry- or government-initiated projects that are implemented in an academic or private sector, because she “enjoys multidisciplinary collaboration, quick turnaround, and the ability to measure her findings’ impact on the target audience.”

She has found that a person’s career path can evolve based on interactions with others, job opportunities, and academic training and advises that students take time for self-reflection on their life experiences. “Try to learn something from each opportunity and challenge you encounter,” she said. “Your initial goals may look much different from the final outcome.”

Praise for Jacqueline

Craig Bond and Shanthi Nataraj praised Jacqueline’s enthusiasm and contributions to their work. “She not only does what would be expected of a research assistant – conducting literature reviews and data analyses – she also goes above and beyond and contributes to the intellectual design of the effort. Perhaps as importantly, she always does so with a smile,” said Bond. They explained that Jacqueline is considered a full partner on the research, “She has become a valuable colleague over the past two years, and we look forward to our continued collaboration.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Jacqueline Fiore and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CRGC website to learn more about their work.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

Video: Meet Tracie Sempier: Helping the People of the Gulf

Tracie Sempier

Tracie Sempier, Ph.D (Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium) is a coastal storms outreach coordinator. She describes how after the Deepwater Horizon Event her work shifted from helping people prepare for and recover from natural disasters – like hurricanes – to helping people recover from man-made, technological disasters – like oil spills.

The creators of award-winning environmental series Journey to Planet Earth (hosted by Matt Damon) present Dispatches from the Gulf – an upcoming documentary film and educational outreach initiative highlighting exclusive scientific discoveries in health, ecosystems, innovation and recovery in the post-oil spill Gulf of Mexico.

Share your thoughts at the following “Dispatches from the Gulf” Social Media links:

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“Dispatches from the Gulf” is a new Journey to Planet Earth (J2PE) episode showing how scientists confront the challenges of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The documentary also investigates the impact of the event on the ecosystems and communities along the Gulf of Mexico.

J2PE dramatizes new ways of looking at the delicate relationship between people and the world they inhabit. The series is designed to help viewers understand and cope with the most important environmental issues of the 21st century.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, these programs reach beyond the physical sciences and draw connections to politics, economics, sociology, and history. A common thread runs throughout — the necessity to achieve a balance between the needs of people and the needs of the environment. Though photographed on different continents and focusing on different sets of problems, audiences come to see why all of these stories are connected, providing a dramatic mosaic of how the Earth works as an interrelated system.

Screenscope Releases 50 Short Videos to Accompany Dispatches from the Gulf Documentary

6213 — This eye-catching collage representing several of the 50 video shorts is on the cover of the Dispatches from the Gulf educators’ guide. Photo by Screenscope, Inc.

Screenscope, Inc., is pleased to announce the release of 50 short videos complementing the Dispatches from the Gulf documentary film.

The videos include highlights from the film, interviews with Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI)-funded scientists and graduate students, and more. An associated Educators Guide provides detailed descriptions and keywords for each video. The videos were generated as an extension of the film, to be used in classroom curriculum and in other educational efforts.

The 50 Shorts Videos are available here on the Dispatches from the Gulf
The Educators Guide can be found here.
If you are an educator, or know someone who is, you can request a free copy of the Dispatches from the Gulf DVD to use in your classroom here.
More information about the Dispatches from the Gulf documentary is available here and here.

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Dispatches from the Gulf is made possible in part by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The GoMRI is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP.

Video: Watermen of the Gulf

Fisherfolk share their feelings about working and living along the Gulf of Mexico.

Share your thoughts at the following “Dispatches from the Gulf” Social Media links:

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Video: The Story in Sixty Seconds (Dispatches from the Gulf)

The creators of award-winning environmental series Journey to Planet Earth (hosted by Matt Damon) present Dispatches from the Gulf – an upcoming documentary film and educational outreach initiative highlighting exclusive scientific discoveries in health, ecosystems, innovation and recovery in the post-oil spill Gulf of Mexico.

Published on Jun 22, 2016
Six years after the Deepwater Horizon blowout, an international team of researchers is focused on the Gulf of Mexico. These are some of their stories – intimate portraits of research – innovation – discovery. Stories that speak directly to a nation still recovering from the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Share your thoughts at the following Dispatches from the Gulf Social Media links:

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Assessing Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impacts on Families and Children

The researchers hope to better understand the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s long-term impact on the health and wellbeing of families – especially children – living in highly impacted regions. (Photo provided by Jaishree Beedasy with permission)

Immediately following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness surveyed households in highly-affected Louisiana areas to track the event’s health and social impacts.

Follow up studies in 2014 revealed that physical and mental distress resulting from the spill still persisted, with over 15% of respondents reporting no perceived recovery of their household or community.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative recently awarded Dr. Tim Slack a grant to continue impact assessments of the oil spill on families and their children. The study will combine surveys, focus groups, and social media analyses to create a longitudinal dataset with time points in 2014, 2016, and 2018. This data will help document social consequences, such as risk behaviors and educational and economic opportunities, and physical and mental effects of disaster-related trauma on families affected by the spill. The study will also examine how these impacts are related to various dimensions of disaster vulnerability (a person or community’s risk of negative disaster impacts) and resilience (the ability to adapt and recover).

The team will conduct face-to-face surveys with household members to gather quantitative information about children’s direct and indirect oil spill exposure; lasting physical, mental, and social health impacts; the household’s economic constraints and access to healthcare; and the community’s perceived recovery or deterioration.

The team will access and analyze social media data using a geospatial query tool tailored to certain locations and filtered using parameters such as keywords, user, date, and time. This information will be used to chart trends and timelines of social media communication related to resiliency topics. These data will help researchers determine if social media fits into existing patterns of resiliency or if it represents a unique form of post-spill resilience.

Principle Investigator Tim Slack (top left) and co-PIs Jaishree Beedasy (top right), Matthew Lee (bottom left), and Thomas Chandler (bottom right) will collect data from spill-affected households to identify which services and support will be most helpful to their recovery. (Photos provided by Tim Slack)

The researchers will assemble six focus groups each with ten individuals based on parameters such as socio-demographics, reliance on social media, and vulnerability. Facilitators will encourage participants to share their personal experiences related to the oil spill, their specific roles and responsibilities during the spill and the following years, and how they used social media to deal with it. They will also consider how online communication with policymakers, first responders, and public health organizations about vulnerable communities’ needs has changed over time. Researchers will use this information to develop a deeper qualitative understanding of the participants’ oil spill experience.

“The quantitative survey technique and qualitative focus group technique are derived from different theoretical approaches,” said co-Principal Investigator Jaishree Beedasy. “However, the particular strengths and limitations of these methods complement one another in a unified research design.”

The team will combine the survey data, social media analysis, and focus group information to identify services and support that may be most beneficial to affected Gulf households and communities. Data will be available to other scientists, policy makers, and the public, and the researchers are planning to engage communities and community leaders in conversations about the findings. Slack explained, “Our ultimate goal is that the information generated from this project will be made actionable in terms of helping facilitate disaster resilience and mitigate vulnerability.”

The project’s researchers are Tim Slack and Matthew R. Lee at the Louisiana State University Department of Sociology and Jaishree Beedasy and Thomas Chandler at the Columbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Their project is Understanding Resilience Attributes for Children, Youth, and Communities in the Wake of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (RCYC).

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Ten Outstanding Education Products Six Years After Deepwater Horizon

Students construct their own drifter after being inspired by “Bob the Drifter”. (Provided by: Jenny Harter)

Communicating oil spill research is essential to improve society’s understanding about spills and their ability to respond to and mitigate them.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) has been funding spill-related research since 2010.

Here are ten outstanding education products and resources that GoMRI and its science community have developed to share what they are learning, doing, and how they are preparing the next generation of scientists for future spill research.

Products You Can Watch…

“Film provides an opportunity to marry the power of ideas with the power of images.”
— Steven Bochco, television writer and producer

Award-winning short films for young audiences “Drones at the Beach” and “Bob the Drifter” use easy-to-understand language and imagery to explain two technologies that scientists use to track an oil slick as it moves with ocean currents towards beaches.

Syndicated outdoors program Gary Finch Outdoors, in partnership with Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC), produced over a dozen short videos highlighting deep-sea research. The videos comprise the Research Video Series and contributed to the E/V Nautilus 2014 Cruise Videos and the Tools of the Trade series.

The Screenscope film production company developed the documentary Dispatches from the Gulf, narrated by Matt Damon, as an episode of the award-winning series Journey to Planet Earth. The film is available for screenings. Screenscope is offering two live streaming events of the film on April 20, 2016, at 2 pm and 7 pm EST to mark the Deepwater Horizon’s sixth anniversary.

The short film “Deciphering Oil Spill Impacts in Louisiana Wetlands” describes GoMRI-funded research on the chemical evolution, biological degradation, and environmental stresses of oil on Louisiana wetlands.

Products You Can Hear…

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.”
— Robert McKee, writer

The Loop: Stories from the Gulf is a podcast series produced by David Levin and Ari Daniel Shapiro that takes listeners under the sea, into the mud, and back to the lab to explore ongoing research. There are currently eight episodes of The Loop available for streaming including:

The Pressure Is On: In “Under Pressure”, German scientists modeled the Deepwater Horizon blowout in a tank that can simulate the water pressure level of the blowout depth to track the oil’s movement and better understand oil dynamics at extreme depths.

“Under Pressure” (07:43):

Seeking New Insights from Decades-Old Spill: In “The Gulf’s Big Blowouts” and “Return to Ixtoc”, an international team of researchers hoping to predict how Deepwater Horizon may impact the Gulf decades into the future set out to study a spill of the past – the 1979 Ixtoc I blowout.

“The Gulf’s Big Blowouts” (08:08):

“Return to Ixtoc” (9:03):

Products for the Classroom…

“The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.”
— Aristotle

The multidisciplinary high school curriculum developed by Deep-C draws connections between the theoretical nature of science and real-world applications and addresses issues such as environmental disasters, their impacts on ocean ecosystems, and nature’s recovery mechanisms. Each of the curriculum’s five modules focuses on a main research area (geomorphology, geochemistry, ecology, physical oceanography, and modeling) and includes five cumulative lessons, background information on the topic, relevant supplementary reading materials, a glossary, and an assessment.

Free downloadable lesson plans and teaching materials bring deep sea and oil spill research to the classroom. DEEPEND has created lesson plans for grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 that cover deep sea topics ranging from bioluminescence to topography and include curricula, experiment instructions, and coloring sheets. Several of CWC’s K-12 Science Classroom Activities, which include lesson plans and fun, science-based activities covering a wide range of oil spill science topics, have been translated into Spanish to reach a broader, more-diverse audience.

Products You Can Explore…

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
— Marcel Proust, novelist

The Smithsonian Ocean Portal is an online complement to the Sant Ocean Hall in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Pieces they have developed include research stories, interactive infographics, blog posts, interviews with GoMRI scientists, and more.

Student Stories highlights some outstanding graduate students to inspire future generations of scientists. Each story describes individual students’ journeys into oil spill research, their current research, and hopes for the future.

The Sea Grant oil spill outreach team creates short brochures that answer coastal audiences’ top questions about the oil spill including fisheries, oiled beaches, and dispersants. These brochures synthesize peer-reviewed oil spill science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on a healthy Gulf.

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This research was made possible in part by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to theConsortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE), Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to the Gulf (ECOGIG) Consortium, the Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems (C-IMAGE I and C-IMAGE II), the Deepsea to Coast Connectivity in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico (Deep-C)Consortium, the Deep-Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico (DEEPEND) Consortium, and the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC).

Dispatches from the Gulf is made possible in part by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI).

GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas) have partnered to create an oil spill science outreach program.

GoMRI and the Smithsonian have a partnership to enhance oil spill science content on the Ocean Portal website.

The GoMRI is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visithttp://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

Grad Student Harper Seeks to Improve Marine and Human Health with Science-Informed Policy

Alex Harper collects seawater samples from CTD Rosette Niskin bottles aboard R/V Weatherbird II. (Photo credit: Natalie Geyers)

Alexandra Harper, a passionate environmental advocate, is using her oceanography expertise to help “society better balance human need with ecological health.”

She is researching the potential relationship between the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and mercury levels in Gulf of Mexico fishes. Because rises in methyl mercury levels in fish increase chances of these toxins making their way into human diets, Alex hopes to advance scientific knowledge to inform future consumption warnings and environmental policies.

Alex is a Chemical Oceanography Ph.D. student at Florida State University (FSU) and is a GoMRI scholar with Deep-C. She shares her path of advocacy and research and her hopes for the future.

Her Path

Alex’s interest in environmental health began during her childhood in the Florida panhandle. Local groundwater quality was deteriorating because of faulty waste disposal and poor land management, practices that could eventually destroy the home she lovingly describes as “a watery wilderness marked by hundreds of crystal-clear freshwater springs and prehistoric cypress trees.” Seeing this first-hand has fueled her “lifelong commitment to protecting, conserving, and restoring our natural world.”

Alex Harper collects seawater samples from CTD Rosette Niskin bottles aboard R/V Weatherbird II. (Photo credit: Natalie Geyers)

However, Alex’s fight for the environment did not begin with the sciences. As a young college graduate, her early profession focused on social change to reshape and restore environmental land ethics. She interned for the U.S. Congress, first with her local Tallahassee congressman and then for Senator John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) press office. After a series of political and environmental campaigns, Alex became disillusioned with the adversarial nature of political and legal arenas and returned to school to study oceanography and strengthen her analytical and field skills. To support herself, she worked part time sampling storm water for a local ecologist. Alex now spends the majority of her time in a geochemistry lab as a doctoral student and the more she learns, the more her environmental concerns grow. She remains active in local clean water initiatives as she volunteers with Florida’s Water and Land Legacy Campaign.

Alex says that her research on mercury in the marine environment was “the result of pure opportunity.” A United States Geological Survey (USGS) Water Science Center researcher affiliated with FSU’s Oceanography Department had an opening for a graduate research intern to work with its new mercury analyzer. Meanwhile, one of Dr. Jeff Chanton’s Ph.D. students moved into a postdoc position, leaving behind enough fish samples for a rigorous mercury study. Alex had recently entered the FSU masters’ program in Environmental Science under Chanton, and he felt she was the perfect fit for the USGS lab vacancy.

Her Work

Alex Harper transports bottles of collected seawater samples across a crowded laboratory on the R/V Weatherbird II. The science crew included researchers from University of South Florida, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the USGS and the University of Delaware. (Photo credit: Natalie Geyers)

Public health concerns regarding mercury exposure and understanding the pathways of mercury accumulation into the food chain are important to Alex’s work. Mercury is a pervasive heavy metal in the environment and is most commonly found as methyl mercury in the fish we eat. She explains that the ecological and health effects of mercury pollution are “greatly exacerbated by environmental transformation of the less harmful forms of mercury to the extremely toxic methyl mercury compound.” With fish consumption advisories continuously expanding to include more fish species and stricter consumption guidelines, Alex says “there is no avoiding the sense of importance of such scientific pursuits, the results of which might help shape policy.”

When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, Alex knew she wanted to research its impacts on mercury concentrations in Gulf fish. Chanton became immediately involved with oil spill research as a Principle Investigator on several GoMRI Block Grants and later as a Co-PI with Deep-C and ECOGIG grants. And thus Alex’s opportunity – being at the right place and time and working with leading scientists – enabled her to make valuable contributions to Deep-C, tracing methyl mercury production and bioaccumulation to “understand the precise effect of the oil spill on mercury concentrations and isotope ratios in an array of northern Gulf of Mexico fish species.” Alex sees her research in the context of the larger picture, “In order to restore the Gulf and protect it from future spills, we must first understand the impacts of Deepwater Horizon.”

Her Learning

Alex is extremely grateful for the foundational work that Deep-C and GoMRI have given her, “The research cruises have allowed me to acquire an array of field skills, from formulating cruise plans to sampling techniques to the daily operations. These have been experiences of a lifetime!” Alex has also honed her communication skills by participating at Deep-C all-hands meetings and annual Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conferences, “I now have ample experience preparing and presenting research presentations and posters which is something all scientists must do.” These meetings have also given her valuable opportunities to learn about and compare research of related fields and to discuss her work with other scientists.

Her Future

Alex Harper and Cheston Peterson, a Ph.D. Marine Biology student, show off an Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) while conducting research as part of the NOAA Gulf Shark Pupping and Nursery (GulfSPAN) Survey. (Photo credit: Dean Grubbs)

This fall, Alex will begin her third year as a chemical oceanography Ph.D. student. Her goal is to complete sample analyses by the end of summer so she can focus on data analyses, formulating results, and writing her dissertation. Her hypothesis is that spill-induced organic loading fosters conditions in the deep Gulf for increased methyl mercury production and accumulation into fish tissue. Through her work, Alex hopes to contribute to “the collective understanding of the Gulf’s mercury cycle and how future oil spills might impact fish mercury levels.”

Alex wants to work on water quality issues with a government or non-profit agency after graduation and “to devote [her] academic and professional pursuits to improving the conservation and management of the northern Gulf of Mexico.”

Praise for Alexandra Harper

Dr. Chanton and her co-advisor, Dr. William Landing, commend Alex’s enthusiasm, dedication, and determination as well as being bright, poised and personable. Chanton said, “I immediately recognized her potential,” seeing the value of her combined pursuit of law, policy, and environmental science. Chanton noted that Alex has flourished during her work at the USGS where she became the primary user and maintainer of the USGS mercury analyzer. Working with Landing, a mercury expert, Alex has “found an association between areas with high organic matter loading in seagrass beds and increased methyl mercury content in seagrass fish.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Alex Harper and their important contributions. TheGoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

Visit the Deep-C website to learn more about their work.

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This research was made possible in part by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to theDeepsea to Coast Connectivity in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico (Deep-C) consortium. The GoMRI is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.