Boats ordered out of area as clean-up as workers treated

SEVEN workers helping to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill were hospitalised last night after they reported dizziness, headaches and nausea while working on boats off the Louisiana coast.

West Jefferson Medical Centre spokeswoman Taslin Alfonso said that doctors believed the likely cause was chemical irritation and dehydration from long hours working in the heat.

Ms Alfonso said the workers told doctors they believed chemicals used to break up the oil made them sick.

Authorities said the workers became ill on Wednesday while cleaning up oil in Breton Sound, southeast of New Orleans.

Officials ordered all 125 boats working there to leave the area.

Meanwhile, marine scientists yesterday said they had discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama. The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science's Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on 20 April.