No Long Term Health Effects Expected For Residents Around Enbridge Oil Spill

Residents at the location of the Enbridge oil spill in Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties five years ago are not expected to experience long-term harm to their health from breathing chemicals that were released into the air.

That’s the conclusion of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

At the time of the spill, residents reported health effects such as headaches, nausea, eye irritation and respiratory discomfort.

But state officials say air monitoring in 2011 and 2012 did not find oil-related chemicals in the air at concentrations exceeding human health screening levels.

Thus, they say, residents did not breathe the chemicals long enough or at high enough levels to cause long term health problems.