GuLF Study GuLF Study The GuLF Study, or Gulf Long-term Follow-up Study, is a five-year research project examining the human-health consequences of the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill in April 2010. The spill followed an explosion on a drilling rig leased by BP, the British oil company, and led to the release of over four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, 48 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the United States. The study was set up in June that year by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It is being conducted by the National Institute of
Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in August 2010. USF's David Hollander remarked, "Oil's presence on the ocean floor didn't diminish with time; it grew" and he pointed out, "the layer is distributed very widely," radiating far from the wellhead. In 2013, some scientists at the "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference" said that as much as one-third of the oil may have been mixed with deep ocean sediments and dragged to the bottom of the ocean floor where it remains, risking damage to ecosystems and commercial fisheries. Oil at or near the site of the spill following well closure has suggested to