国际主流媒体英语新闻2.doc

Oil Spills May Leave More Emotional Than Physical Scars, Study Finds By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON Published: April 6, 2011 NEW ORLEANS — In a review of past oil spills as well as the available data from last year’s BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, doctors found that adverse health effects from oil and chemical exposure are less likely than behavioral and mental health issues to pose significant long-term risks for most gulf residents. However, they acknowledged the lingering uncertainty about the true impact of last year’s spill and said the federal government’s delay in studying the spill’s health effects would hinder the ability to understand them with accuracy. The review, published online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, considers the various risks posed by the spill, including contaminants from crude oil and dispersant, as well as how effects may differ depending on a person’s exposure during the spill. With several qualifications, mostly relating to a lack of available data, the authors found that the likelihood of serious long-term problems from components of the oil is low for residents and onshore cleanup workers. The authors did, however, raise concerns about those who cleaned up the oil offshore and were exposed to it at its freshest. “There have been few studies of longer term health consequences” in this population of workers, the authors said. There is also little data assessing the effect of oil spill exposure on children. William Sawyer, a toxicologist who has been monitoring the effects of the spill along the coast, said he welcomed a review of the data, but pointed out limitations in comparing this spill to previous ones. “The intensity of exposure as well as the duration of exposure in this scenario, due to its ongoing release as opposed to an acute oil spill, are different,” Dr. Sawyer said. “We may find that we have a higher percentage of long-term effects than published in the other studies.” Concerns about possible fallout hav