The National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has announced a large-scale, $10 million, study to investigate the health effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The study, which is scheduled to begin in late October 2010, will monitor around 50,000 workers and volunteers who were involved in the clean-up operation. It will involve blood tests, tests of lung function and cardiovascular health, amongst other things. Follow up tests will, for example, track reproductive health and mental health.

Looking at the long and short-term effects, researchers will compare ‘exposed’ people, who completed at least one day of clean-up work, and ‘unexposed’ people, such as those who underwent training but were not directly involved in the clean-up, or other members of the community.

This research will be the most thorough investigation to date of the health repercussions of an oil spill. Dale Sandler, an epidemiologist from the NIEHS, and principle investigator on the study, told The Scientist that in the last 50 years, of the 38 “supertanker” oil spills, just 8 have been subsequently investigated for their health effects. And these studies, she says, were not longer-term, far-reaching investigations like this one.