Trabajo inglés

The Prestige oil spill was an oil spill in Galicia caused by the sinking of an oil tanker in 2002. The spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish.

In the subsequent months, thousands of volunteers joined the public company TRAGSA to help clean the affected coastline. The massive cleaning campaign was a success despite the 63,000 tons of oil loosed. Five years later, after the cleaning activities, a study found that people participating in the cleaning activities, many of them volunteers, suffered several health problems, such as pulmonary, cardiovascular, and chromosomal diseases.

Scientists have not been able to quantify the impact on the animals but about the 85% of the species were affected for this situation.

Since the disaster, oil tankers similar to the Prestige have been directed away from the French and Spanish coastlines. The then European Commissioner for Transport, Spaniard Loyola de Palacio, pushed for the ban of single-hulled tankers.