CleveMed Blogs

Oil spills have a catastrophic effect on marine wildlife, and a controversial effect on human health. Recently, it has been determined that leaking oil is about 40% methane gas, compared to 5% found in typical oil deposits. Such high levels of methane can suffocate marine life and create “dead zones” where oxygen is so depleted nothing in those areas can survive. While humans do not face nearly the same exposure risk as animals, the most common oil exposure mechanism is inhalation of oil-related fumes. In addition, fumes of chemical dispersants often used to contain the spill, as well as the risk of inhaling the methane gas, may be hazardous. Exposure to high levels of methane gas depletes oxygen levels, causing difficulty breathing and leading to suffocation if left untreated. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, and heart palpitations are also symptoms of methane gas poisoning. In addition to inhalation exposure, people also face the potential of ingesting contaminated food products, as well as physical contact if walking or swimming along a contaminated beach. The effect of oil exposure in humans is not entirely known, but recently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have noticed some complaints of throat irritation, eye irritation, nausea, headache, and cough in Gulf area residents, all of which could be attributed to a variety of causes. So far, about 60 exposure-related complaints have been filed with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals by individuals who are working to clean up the spill.

While containment and oil clean up is critical, there is also a need for health clean up, where biomedical engineering can play an important role. Bioinstrumentation can be critical in addressing health concerns for animals and humans. Since air exposure is the most common way humans may be affected, monitoring blood oxygen levels, lung capacity, and breathing patterns can determine respiratory effects. Furthermore, monitoring cardiac characteristics could demonstrate methane poisoning based on presence of a heart beating rapidly, abnormally, and any arrhythmias. Additionally, examining electrical characteristics of the heart could determine if any symptoms, such as shortness of breath, are a result of cardiac conduction problems. Bioinstrumentation allows researchers and medical personnel to collect physiological data to determine when these types of symptoms are occurring and differentiate underlying causes as well as the potential need for immediate medical treatment. The proper bioinstrumentation tools such as wireless physiological monitors are crucial in situations such as an oil spill because they can rapidly provide health information necessary for treating exposure related illnesses.

Typically, bioinstrumentation is large and bulky, often mounted on carts, and tethered to a wall power supply. These systems are extremely limited because of their inability for use in remote or rugged locations. Remote and compact bioinstrumentation can have significant benefits in situations such as the Gulf oil spill. CleveMed’s BioRadio could be used to research physiological effects on individuals who are working with oil spill clean up without hindering the effort. It could also be used to explore whether or not individuals working directly with the oil (for instance, scooping tar balls out of the water) have different physiological characteristics than those working indirectly with the oil, such as washing off animals, and provide insight as to whether or not certain cleaning locations are more dangerous than others. Such data could be used to try to develop a theoretical “map” of the breadth of spill-related fumes and their effect on a variety of populations. The BioRadio is a wireless, 12-channel, lightweight, programmable physiological monitor for viewing and recording any combination of physiological signals, such as ECG, EEG, EOG and EMG, respiration, spirometry, oximetry and more. The BioRadio has a transmission range of approximately 100 feet and battery life up to 12 hours continuous.

This post is an adaptation from “Can Biomedical Engineering Clean Gulf Oil Spill Effects?” as seen in BioRadio Research & Education Quarterly, Summer 2010.