The National Institute for Environmental Health has announced it has begun enrolling participants for the largest study ever of the impacts of an oil spill on human health.

Dale P. Sandler, the chief of the institute’s epidemiology branch, said the first 1,000 letters would be sent out Monday to a projected 55,000 who will be asked to participate in health surveys.

This particular study will target people who worked in some capacity with the response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Participants will be those who worked with response efforts in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

“We’re looking at a wide range of health impacts,” Sandler said during a conference call held to announce the start of the study. “We’ve seen a whole series of things that started at the time of the oil spill.”

The initial focus of the study will be on the most commonly reported symptoms, Sandler said.

But she also said only 30 people in the entire survey area have made oil spill related health complaints that were documented by a local health care specialist.

“It’s not all that many complaints relative to the size of the oil spill,” she said. “We’re trying to collect data for all of the workers.”

The 30 whose complaints have been documented “come from a group with elevated levels of symptoms,” Sandler said.

The survey will focus primarily at first on respiratory issues and complaints of long lasting rashes, Sandler said. Stress-related conditions or neurological diseases and other, more general illnesses will also be looked at in the study’s initial stages.

“We’ll be looking at dizziness, watering eyes and, people who feel sick all the time since the spill,” she said.

About half the survey participants will be selected for home visits, where they’ll be asked to take part in physical tests measuring lung function and other factors, Sandler said.

Samples of blood, hair, urine and nail clippings will be taken at the time of the house visits. Researchers will be looking for bio markers they can use to draw “associations,” Sandler said.

Those selected for the health studies will fill out detailed health profiles every two to three years.

Over the long term the study group will be looking at cancer rates, long-term respiratory issues and liver function among survey participants, Sandler said.

“The study is a good thing for Gulf Coast residents,” Sandler said during the conference call. “it will allow Gulf Coast communities to gain needed data.”

The group’s focus will be primarily on oil spill workers. Other agencies, Sandler said, will be charged with looking at ailments reported from groups not associated with the cleanup.

That category of complainants might be the most prevalent in Northwest Florida. recently a number of Okaloosa and, particularly Walton County residents have gone public with concerns about their health.

Many believe the symptoms they are suffering were caused by dispersants being dropped in the waters off Northwest Florida, which is something BP and local officials have denied.

Melissa Neidert sent a letter to the Daily News in which she complains of “cold symptoms” that have gotten progressively worse.

“I have seen doctors about stomach issues, sore throats, lethargy, brain fog, muscle soreness (and) digestive issues,” Neidert said in the letter.

She said test results indicate she has “toxic levels of five separate toxins associated with the oil spill and the dispersant that was used afterward,” the letter said.

Sandler said that symptoms discussed by some reporters during the conference call, like spontaneous bleeding “haven’t been seen in other oil spills.”

She said Gulf Coast residents who didn’t work in oil spill-related capacities but have complaints can go to the National Institute for Environmental Health website to information on where to report their symptoms.

Sandler also said her agency and others are compiling data about where dispersants and other potentially dangerous chemicals might have been dumped during the oil spill, which started in April and reached Florida waters in early June.

“we want to be diligent and get as much data as we can obtain through other federal agencies and BP contractors directly concerning dispersant use,” she said.

The National Institute of Environmental Health study has been funded by the National Institute of Health, Sandler said. The organization “received some funding as a gift to the NIH from BP,” she said.

But that amounted to “a small fraction of the total cost of the study” and BP has no influence over the agency’s findings, she added.

This study is “only one part of a larger effort focused on the health of the entire community,” Sandler said.

“The full range of health concerns of the Gulf Coast Community should be addressed as part of this entire study,” she said.