Asked about a swarm of Internet rumors that so-called “volatile organic compounds” are in the air as a result of the ongoing Gulf oil spill, an official with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) said his agency can only go on what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tells them, and that is that no air quality concerns exist at this point.

Ron Gore, who heads up ADEM’s Air Division, said on Monday that “three or four states” and the EPA have a program in place to monitor air quality in connection with the oil spill crisis, and that the EPA collects the data and analyzes it.

“EPA has said the monitoring they are doing has shown no air quality concerns at this point,” Gore said, adding that odors in connection with the oil is “probable and possible” along the Alabama coast and other coastal states directly affected by the oil spill.

Internet sites, however, point to an alleged EPA report of late that shows toxins or volatile organic compounds — VOCs — in the air as a result of the spewing oil that is working its way to shorelines along the Gulf. Among the alleged VOCs are hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride, all in amounts up to hundreds of times the acceptable limits, according to the Internet sites.

These VOCs are allegedly being sent to shore by the same winds that are pushing the oil inland.

Asked what he would say to people who might have concerns after reading Internet sites carrying the VOC story, Gore said, “All I can do is repeat what EPA is telling us,” namely, that no detectable levels of toxins from the oil spill have been found to date that could affect human health.

The Internet sites say the VOCs allegedly recorded by EPA can result in everything from death to brain and birth disorders to respiratory and kidney failure.

Kim Taylor, public information officer with the Baldwin County Health Department, said Monday that BCHD isn’t doing any air quality monitoring itself but is getting reports from a company called CTEH.

“They have approximately hundreds of (monitoring) stations along the coast from Louisiana to Florida, some of which overlap each other,” Taylor said. She said CTEH is looking for hydrocarbons and other air contaminants but everything has been “all clean to this point.”

CTEH is Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, located in Little Rock, Ark.

Taylor said CTEH’s air monitoring resulted in one fact she found especially interesting.

“Even on days when there was a (oil) smell in the air, it didn’t correlate with (bad) air quality and vice versa,” she said.

Asked about any health problems in the county that might have been manifested since the oil spill crisis started, Taylor said BCHD has been monitoring hospital emergency rooms and certain medical services outlets.

“There has been no widespread presentation of respiratory problems,” Taylor said of Baldwin County.

Asked what she would say to county residents who might have read Internet accounts concerning VOCs or heard rumors about the toxins as they relate to the oil spill and local air quality, Taylor said it would be best to stay inside with air conditioning should air quality reports begin to reflect less that ideal or acceptable contaminant levels. That would be especially true for those who might have respiratory issues, she said.