The Michigan Department of Community Health's report on the submerged oil is being called "premature" by the National Wildlife Federation.
In its report, MDCH officials declared that "contact with sediment containing submerged oil will not result in long-term health effects." Some sediments in the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek became contaminated with heavy tar sands oil after the Enbridge pipeline break.
In the Kalamazoo Gazette, National Wildlife Federation Senior Scientist Doug Inkley said the agency should have done more research before making such a statement:
“It’s a premature conclusion based on incomplete results,” Inkley said. “The jury is still out.” Inkley said his biggest concern about the study is that eight chemicals found in the submerged oil were not included in the conclusion.
A toxicologist at MDCH told the Gazette that some of the chemicals weren't tested because the submerged oil didn't have enough concentrations of the chemicals to warrant testing, and because "some of the chemicals were actually groups of chemicals, some of which had already been individually tested in the study."
