Special Section (Introduction)

NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of

Environmental and Occupational
Studying the Human Health Policy
2018, Vol. 28(3) 410–415
Health and Ecological ! The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1048291118795691

Water Horizon Oil Spill journals.sagepub.com/home/new

Disaster: Introduction
to This Special Issue of
New Solutions

Sharon Croisant1 and John Sullivan2

Abstract
Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health Risks Related to the Macondo Spill (GC-HARMS)
began in 2011 as a component project of the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences’ (NIEHS) Deep Water Horizon (DWH) Research Consortia
program. This Gulf-wide consortium created regional community-university
research partnerships focused on addressing health impacts resulting from oil spill
exposures. Findings from this trans-National Institutes of Health program have
helped enhance and refine community disaster preparedness and reinforced local–
regional disaster response networks. Focal points of individual projects included
the following: effects of multiple stressors on individuals and vulnerable populations,
exposure to contaminants associated with crude oil, and mental health impacts.
This introduction to New Solutions Special Issue on the GC-HARMS response to
the DWH disaster presents an overview of the project’s internal structure and
relationship to the comprehensive NIEHS consortia response and lists articles and

1
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
2
University of Texas Medical Branch/Sealy Center for Environmental Health & Medicine, Galveston,
TX, USA
Corresponding Author:
John Sullivan, University of Texas Medical Branch/Sealy Center for Environmental Health & Medicine, 301
University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555-1110, USA.
Email: jpatstx@gmail.com
Croisant and Sullivan 411

interviews featured currently with brief mention of additional articles slated for the
next issue.

Keywords
GC-HARMS, Deepwater Horizon, oil spill, environmental justice, CBPR

Introduction
Gulf Coast Health Alliance: Health Risks Related to the Macondo Spill
(GC-HARMS) was rolled out in 2011 as a component project of the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ (NIEHS) Deep Water Horizon
(DWH) Research Consortia program.a This Gulf-wide consortium created
regional community-university research partnerships focused on addressing
health impacts resulting from oil spill exposures. Findings from this trans-
National Institutes of Health program have helped enhance and refine commu-
nity disaster preparedness and reinforced local–regional disaster response
networks. Focal points of individual projects included effects of multiple stres-
sors on individuals and vulnerable populations, exposure to contaminants asso-
ciated with crude oil, and mental health impacts.
In the early days of the Macondo oil spill, the University of Texas Medical
Branch (UTMB) at Galveston became involved in the response largely due to
ongoing relationships with coastal communities impacted by the spill. Many
communities were anxious and fearful, given the lack of certainty over the mag-
nitude of the spill, how or when it might be capped, and the long-term environ-
mental and economic effects. Several community groups with whom UTMB had
been involved on various projects in the aftermaths of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita,
and Ike reached out to scientists at the UTMB-Center in Environmental
Toxicology to attempt to address their questions and concerns regarding
human health and ecological impacts from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs) in the oil, dispersants, and the long-term effects on the food web.
These concerns, and the desire to procure answers to these thorny questions,
prompted a series of discussions of the issues and the subsequent establishment
of a community/campus partnership and research proposal utilizing a
community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. The research
focused on gaining an understanding of the long-term health effects attributable
to the oil spill. It was initiated by a series of five meetings between scientists,
clinicians, and community members to discuss research priorities, logistics and
study design, and development of the infrastructure for facilitating outreach and
dissemination. Meetings were held in Alabama (in Coden and LaBatre),
Mississippi (in Biloxi and Gulfport), and Louisiana (in New Orleans and
412 NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 28(3)

Houma). Participants included faculty and staff from two NIEHS P30 Core
Centers, UTMB-Center in Environmental Toxicology and the University of
Pennsylvania’s Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology as well as
community organizations representing social service agencies, faith-based
organizations, environmental and economic justice advocates, and the public
health sector. The GC-HARMS consortium ultimately consisted of UTMB, the
University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Louisiana
State University, and a coalition of Gulf Coast communities disproportionately
impacted by the oil spill. The coalition of community partners were represented
by the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (Baton Rouge, Louisiana),
the Center for Environmental and Economic Justice (Biloxi, Mississippi), the
Mississippi Vietnamese Fishing Community (Gulfport, Mississippi), the United
Houma Nation (Houma, Louisiana), the Alabama Fisheries Cooperative
(Coden, Alabama), and Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing
(Thibodaux, Louisiana).
The GC-HARMS project focused on (1) assessing petrogenic PAH seafood
contamination, (2) determining PAH toxicity, (3) evaluating exposure and
health outcomes in a longitudinal cohort study, and (4) disseminating findings
to stakeholders—the subsistence/commercial fishermen, shrimpers, crabbers and
oystermen, and fishing communities that depend on the Gulf food web for both
sustenance and economic viability.b To enhance the community-based process,
a collaborative Fishermen’s Citizen Science Network was created to collect,
document, and ship samples for Gas Chromatograph–Mass Spectrometer anal-
ysis. The Fishermen’s Network and a series of iterative public forums, convened
in partner communities, were also instrumental in disseminating the project’s
risk message regarding seafood consumption guidelines—a message that
evolved over time as findings from the study of petrogenic PAH toxicity
became more refined.
Each partner contributed unique skills and perspectives to the study. The
UTMB-Center in Environmental Toxicology was focused on the health effects
of exposure to environmental factors, where its Community Engagement Core
had long-term, rich relationships with coastal Gulf communities and extensive
experience in community outreach. The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for
Excellence in Environmental Toxicology brought expertise in PAH toxicology,
in developing biomarkers of exposures and effect, in developing community-first
communication methods to disseminate results, and in working with area
healthcare providers. Texas A&M University at Galveston’s Division of
Marine Biology focused on five main areas of development: fisheries, marine
mammals, oceans and human health (aquatic health), wetlands, and biodiver-
sity. Louisiana State University’s Department of Geography and Anthropology
brought an extensive history in researching vulnerable communities and the
factors that contribute to or detract from their resilience to natural disasters.
Louisiana State University/Lafayette General Hospital provided the medical
Croisant and Sullivan 413

faculty and project staff to support the multistate cohort study. Each of the
community organizations also brought unique skills and experiences to the
table. Louisiana Environmental Action Network organized training for citizen
scientists involved in seafood sampling, served as the community base for the
project’s Community Outreach and Dissemination Core, and assisted with inter-
pretation of findings from environmental sampling. The research hubs were
selected based upon the tremendous impact of the spill on specific communities.
The Gulf and its estuaries are vital to the United Houma Nation culture and
history, and harvesting seafood is not only an important driver of the economy
but also a representative of a way of life. Vietnamese fishermen and their fam-
ilies in the Gulfport/Biloxi area not only subsist on seafood but also engage in
differential consumption of seafood, including smoking fish whole and thus
consuming organ meat in addition to the more commonly consumed filets.
The Center for Environmental and Economic Justice is a long-standing cham-
pion for social, environmental, and economic justice. The Alabama Fisheries
Cooperative (Coden, Alabama) represented the interests of commercial fisher-
men, and Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (Thibodaux,
Louisiana) represented a multitude of faith-based communities in Louisiana,
especially concerned with the impact of the spill on recreational fishing. Each
community and campus partner thus provided a different and important lens
through which to view the issues and to interpret results.
As a special section in this issue, New Solutions features the following articles
on findings and processes associated with the Community Outreach and
Dissemination Core of GC-HARMS. The first article, by Sullivan et al.,1 chron-
icles the development of the Fishermen’s Citizen Science Network; discusses the
rationale and pedagogy behind the citizen science approach; addresses the chal-
lenges encountered by community hub coordinators, fishermen, and researchers
throughout the process; and evaluates the outcomes using CBPR-informed proj-
ect parameters, as well as principles from the emerging field of citizen science.
The second article, by Howarth and Meirs,2 is based on the premise that assess-
ing health impacts of environmental exposure requires specialized training in
Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Research found that very few
physicians in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana had appropriate training
in exposure assessment, and most of these physicians saw only occupationally
exposed patients and were unavailable to many residents with environmental
exposure concerns and related illness.
And finally, the Voices section of this issue features interviews with
GC-HARMS community partners: Marylee and Michael Orr (Louisiana
Environmental Action Network),3 Wilma Subra (GC-HARMS Community
Scientist),4 and Thomas Dardar (Principal Chief of the United Houma
Nation).5 The content of these interviews ranges from commentary and evalu-
ation specific to their roles in GC-HARMS, to thoughts on risk communication,
citizen science, and the need for climate justice in the region’s future. The
414 NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 28(3)

interviewees address serious land loss, vulnerable populations, density and vul-
nerability of energy industry infrastructure, and the clear probability of stronger
hurricanes and other extreme weather events in their future.
The following issue of New Solutions (Volume 28, Issue 4) will continue this
close look at the impacts of the DWH oil spill through the lens of the GC-
HARMS project. One article will discuss the implications of citizen science, both
for collaborative field practice and the democratization of community-based
population science and environmental public health-oriented rulemaking.
Another article reviews challenges posed by scientific uncertainty in crisis sit-
uations like the DWH oil spill when the need for public health information in
affected communities is urgent and the requisite exposure science is still nascent
(with reference to toxicity of petrogenic PAH). This paper also updates the
project’s progress in characterizing PAH toxicity through ongoing study of
appropriate bioassay techniques and targeted petrogenic PAH metabolomes.
Lastly, the next issue will feature three additional interviews with GC-
HARMS community partners.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (P30-ES006676, P30-ES013508, and U19-ES020676).

Notes
a. For greater detail, visit: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/centers/gulf
consortium/index.cfm.
b. For greater detail, visit: https://www.utmb.edu/GCHARMS/default.asp.

References
1. Sullivan J, Croisant S, Howarth M, et al. Building and maintaining a citizen science
network with fishermen and their communities post Deep Water Horizon oil disaster
using a CBPR approach. New Solutions 2018; 28: 416–447.
2. Howarth M and Meirs K. Environmentally overburdened Gulf state residents lack
access to environmental specialty care. New Solutions 2018; 28: 448–462.
3. Sullivan J and Rosenberg B. ‘I remember the mental chaos while they tried to seal the
well and clean up the oil spill – how much fear and uncertainty everyone felt’: an
interview with Marylee and Michael Orr, Louisiana Environmental Action Network
(LEAN). New Solutions 2018; 28: 467–486.
Croisant and Sullivan 415

4. Sullivan J and Parady K. ‘Keep working for environmental justice no matter how
bleak things look. Don’t give up. Don’t just go away’: an interview with Wilma Subra.
New Solutions 2018; 28: 487–500.
5. Sullivan J and Rosenberg B. ‘Losing your land you feel like you’re losing your iden-
tity, like you’re experiencing slow death’: an interview with Chief Thomas Dardar –
Houma Nation. New Solutions 2018; 28: 501–514.

Author Biographies
Sharon Croisant, MS, PhD, CEC director, is an associate professor in the
UTMB Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. An inves-
tigator in both the Center in Environmental Toxicology and the Institute for
Translational Sciences, she serves as director of Community Engagement for
both. She has a strong record of leading community engagement efforts in
environmental health, having assumed the role of CEC director in 2009, after
serving as director of Children’s Asthma and Lead Outreach since 2001. A
major focus of her career has centered on translational research, i.e., building
interfaces between and among environmental research, education, and commu-
nity health, especially through a CBPR approach. She has established long-
standing, ongoing collaborative relationships with community stakeholders
across the Gulf Coast with a vested interest in using research findings to
direct community-based intervention and outreach activities. Croisant was prin-
cipal investigator on Project 1 (Community Health Assessment) and directed the
project’s Community Outreach and Dissemination Core during the course of
GC-HARMS.

John Sullivan served as liaison with community hub coordinators for the GC-
HARMS Community Outreach and Dissemination Core. Sullivan previously
served as director of the Public Forum & Toxics Assistance Division of the
Community Outreach and Engagement Core of the NIEHS P30 Center in
Environmental Toxicology at UTMB (Galveston, TX). He is a practitioner of
Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed within a CBPR context and previously
served as a guest coeditor with Eduardo Siqueira (MD, ScD) for a New
Solutions special feature on Popular Arts & Education in CBPR (2009).