BP pledges money into health study of oil spill

BP has pledged $10 million (£6.47 million) into a new health study which will assess the medical damage caused by the oil spill due to a reduction in water and air quality.

Since an oil rig the fuel giant was operating on exploded in April 2010, causing millions of gallons of oil to leak into the water, there has been concern that the release of the natural resource posed health risks to workers and residents in the nearby states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama.

In order to determine what the side-effects of the high level of wastewater and reduction in air quality are likely to be and ways to treat them, BP is providing the investment for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

It is part of the $500 million Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) - a ten-year study into the environmental and health impact of the blast.

Chief executive of BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization Bob Dudley said: "There is much still to be learned from this incident and BP is providing this funding to NIH because it is well positioned to assure the quality and the integrity of the independent research process."

Posted by Joseph Hutton