Federal health officials leading a study on the health effects of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest ever of its kind, plan to begin releasing preliminary findings by the middle of next year, they said yesterday.

Enrollment of cleanup workers in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Gulf Long-Term Follow-Up, or GuLF, study ends in December, said Dale Sandler, the principal investigator of the study.

Sandler said yesterday that she realizes she is "under pressure to get the data out as quickly as possible."

"I will hope to have papers drafted and ready to share within four to six months, which is very fast," she said on a conference call with reporters.

NIEHS, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, began the study in March 2011. It is expected to be the largest study ever on the effects of an oil spill, lasting 10 years and likely costing more than $10 million (Greenwire, March 1, 2011).

Researchers are focusing on both physical and mental ailments that may be caused by exposure to the oil and chemical dispersants used in the cleanup.

It does appear, however, that the study will fall short of the 55,000 participants NIEHS originally hoped to include. Sandler said the study has 29,000 workers enrolled now and hopes to get between 35,000 and 40,000 in total by the end of the year.

Sandler noted that at the current enrollment, it is already the largest study of the effects of an oil spill. Part of the problem, she said, is that a lot of the contact information the group has for many of the roughly 150,000 workers that participated in the cleanup has turned out to be inaccurate.

"We can still have the same scientific success with a study that's smaller," Sandler said.

Of those already enrolled, Sandler said, most are younger than 45, are diverse, and come from Florida, Louisiana and Alabama.

Participants in the study will first conduct a telephone interview. From there, several thousand will be asked to participate in a second phase that involves a home visit and the submission of blood, urine and other samples.

The goal of the study has been lauded by public health groups, but they also add that it fails to provide treatment to those who need it.

Anne Rolfes of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, whose initial documenting of the health effects following the April 20, 2010, spill helped paved the way for the NIEHS study, said it underscores a disturbing pattern.

"You go back as far as Agent Orange," Rolfes said, referring to the toxic defoliant used in the Vietnam War, "no treatment. Gulf War, no treatment. Exxon Valdez, no treatment. [Federal Emergency Management Agency] trailers [used after Hurricane Katrina], no treatment. We know this lesson."

She added: "I realize to ask NIH for treatment is barking up the wrong tree. But I question whether or not NIH ever delivered that message to the administration."