MARSHALL, MI  (WKZO) --  The Michigan Department of Community Health says contact with the oil in the Kalamazoo River, left over from the Enbridge oil spill may cause skin irritation, and you should wash your pet or your child should they come in contact with it, but it should not cause any long term health problems, like cancer. 

They say keep the kids away from tar patties that may appear on the banks of the river and out of the sheen on the river surface if you can, but it’s not a major health concern.   The study doesn’t evaluate the effects of breathing in fumes from the residual oil, or the safety of eating the fish.  Those studies haven’t been completed.