Dolphins in an area hard hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 are suffering from lung diseases and other abnormalities that are consistent with toxic exposure to oil, according to a study backed by the federal government and released on Wednesday.

The peer-reviewed paper, which was disputed by BP PLC, was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The paper makes the strongest connection to date between the BP spill and dolphin deaths, which jumped in the Gulf of Mexico after the spill.

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