Nursing students clean up in South Korea
A group of University of Saskatchewan nursing students, along with Assistant Dean June Anonson, have returned home to Prince Albert after helping to clean up South Korea’s largest and most disastrous oil spill.
U of S Nursing students help clean up South Korea's most disastrous oil spill. The students were in South Korea as part of an international nursing practicum in January, and volunteered to help with remediation efforts related to the spill.
Photo courtesy the College of Nursing
On January 14, the fourth-year students, already in South Korea as part of an international nursing practicum, travelled with Anonson 150 kilometres south-west of Seoul to assist with the cleanup efforts on the shores of the Yellow Sea. The nurses were part of a volunteer and government worker crew of over 6,000 people and 100 ships, including Coast Guard, navy and private fishing boats.
On December 7, 2007, a 146,000-ton Hong Kong-registered supertanker was hit by a South Korean-owned barge that came unmoored from its tugboat in rough seas. The accident occurred about 7 miles off Mallipo, one of South Korea's most scenic and best-known beaches. Mallipo is an important stopover for migrating birds, has an abundant fishing industry and is home to a national maritime park.
With the tremendous health and environmental implications of the spill, Dr Anonson notes the South Korean people were very impressed that students from another country volunteered for the cleanup effort of what is being billed as one of the greatest environmental disasters in Korea's history.
“This is a true disaster, one I hope we will never see again in our lifetime,” said Dr. Anonson. “As terrible as it was, this was a tremendous learning experience and a real eye opener for all of us to participate in cleanup first-hand.” Dr. Anonson adds the nursing students were “ambassadors in their truest form for the University of Saskatchewan, for Canada and for the profession of Nursing.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Health Minister Tony Clement recently recognized Dr. Anonson as one of 14 extraordinary and diverse nurse leaders in Canada.
A total of 66,000 barrels (2.7 million gallons) of crude oil had gushed into the ocean during the disaster, washing up onto the beaches and maritime farms. The spill was more than twice as large as South Korea's worst previous oil disaster in 1995. The tanker had been at anchor and carrying about 260,000 tons, or about 1.8 million barrels, of crude oil to be loaded into boats from a nearby port. The size of the leak reported is about one-fourth that of the Exxon Valdez in 1989.