Oil giant BP has hit back over claims the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has caused heart problems for fish in the Gulf of Mexico.
A report from scientists at the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Stamford University claimed that crude oil interferes with fish heart cells.
The research, published today in research journal Science, came as part of investigations into the environmental damage caused by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill.
But today the British oil giant, still battling through the courts over compensation claims relating to the massive spill, hit out at the research.
“Bathing isolated heart cells with oil concentrations is simply not comparable to the real-world conditions and exposures that existed in the Gulf for whole fish,” the company said in a statement.
“The bodies of live tuna have numerous defensive mechanisms that isolated heart cells do not. Equally important, the oil concentrations used in these lab experiments were rarely seen in the Gulf during or after the Deepwater Horizon accident.”
The scientists had tested crude oil on heart cells from tuna, and found that chemicals in the oil interfered with the ability of the cardiac cells to relax and contract – stopping the heart from beating properly.
“The ability of a heart cell to beat depends on its capacity to move essential ions like potassium and calcium into and out of the cells quickly,” said Stanford professor of marine sciences Barbara Block.
“This dynamic process, which is common to all vertebrates, is called ‘excitation-contraction coupling.’
“We have discovered that crude oil interferes with this vital signaling process essential for our heart cells to function properly.”
“When we see these kinds of acute effects at the cardiac cell level, it is not surprising that chronic exposure to oil from spills such as the Deepwater Horizon can lead to long-term problems in fish hearts.”
The researchers, who have presented their work at a scientific conference in the USA, said their findings suggested long term potential damage on fish in the Gulf of Mexico from the spill.
But BP described the findings as ‘scientifically inappropriate’ and said their results had not been observed in the Gulf.