GuLF Study Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and aims to recruit 55,000 of the 150,000 workers who volunteered or were employed to help clean up the spill. It is led by Dale Sandler, head of the NIEHS's epidemiology branch. The "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill was the world's largest accidental marine oil spill. It began on 20 April 2010 after an explosion on the "Deepwater Horizon", a drilling rig leased by BP to drill an exploratory well. Between then and 15 July, when the well was capped, over four million barrels of oil (around 170 million US
Health consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill fetuses. For example, 2-butoxyethanol is a human health hazard substance; it is a fetal toxin and it breaks down blood cells, causing blood and kidney disorders". Louisianan's Governor Bobby Jindal said those impacted will be compensated by BP. An RNA sequencing study found that a combination of Corexit and oil may weaken the cell junctions of airway epithelial cells, which is seen in asthma and cystic fibrosis. The authors of this study posit that the results of this RNA transcriptomic study could provide evidence for the mechanisms through which BP oil spill workers experienced respiratory oxidative stress and associated symptoms.