It’s been a year since the BP drilling rig explosion and resulting oil spill started to damage the environment and livelihood of Gulf coast residents.
A Colorado researcher just released a study on the psychological impacts of the disaster, focusing on people living in Alabama. Liesel Ritchie is assistant director for research at the CU-Boulder Natural Hazards Center. She studied the mental health impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill years after that disaster. Ritchie tells Colorado Public Radio’s Anna Panoka there are similarities between what happened to Alaskans and what’s going on in the South.
