Short- and long-term health impacts of marine and terrestrial oil spills /

In Metro Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley, the proposed ‘twinning’ of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline will almost triple the quantity of a variety of petroleum products entering the region. [...] Accordingly, and in the light of the recent proposal to ‘twin’ the Trans Mountain Pipeline, Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health have been asked by local municipalities to provide more detailed information on health impacts in the event of another marine or terrestrial spill. [...] The occurrence of several serious tanker accidents in the previous 25 years (Table 2) has created opportunities to observe and document the health impacts of oil spills in other regions of the world. [...] The severity of a given spill refers to the total amount of non-recoverable oil lost and its persistence in the environment, and is determined by numerous factors, including total volume of the spill, the product spilled (as 4 relates to its biodegradability/persistence/volatilization, toxicological profile, etc.), and its movement by wind and water (influencing spatial extent) (3). [...] Furthermore, because of the difficulty in estimating the total number of people affected in a given event (which may not be fully appreciated until years after the fact), studies often cite the distance of the accident to shore or to human communities, or kilometers of coastline oiled, as a way to give context to the risk of human exposure.