500 Oil, Illness, and Human Rights
Oil and Community Health
In places where oil is discovered, the economy develops rapidly, but it is an
economy of misery. Poorly built oil camps are carved out of the landscape
and bring with them many social problems, such as forced displacement,
alcoholism, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV (see also page 474). Oil
companies and governments regularly wash their hands of the communities
most damaged by oil development. These communities are often left on their
own to try to determine how much and what kinds of harm oil has caused,
and to search for ways to restore their community’s health.
Natural gas also causes health problems
Burning natural gas produces less carbon dioxide (a cause of global warming)
and other pollutants than burning oil. But drilling for natural gas is similar
to oil drilling, and it brings many of the same social problems. Almost
everything that is true about oil in this chapter is true of natural gas as well.
Communities affected by oil organize a health study
In 1992, a group of health promoters in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador
studied the way oil drilling was affecting local communities. They knew
oil companies were destroying their land, but there was little
understanding about how the oil
affected people’s health. So the
health promoters began to collect
information in their towns and
We live in an area that
is rich in oil. But no one
here is rich.
villages.
The health study took a lot of work and a lot of time. When
they began, the health promoters did not know what they would learn. They
tell their story in their own words throughout this chapter.
For thousands of years this region has been home to indigenous people. In our
part of the Amazon jungle live many different peoples: Shuar-Achuar, Runa,
Quichua, Huaorani, Siona-Secoya, and Cofan. Each of these
cultures has its own language and art, and its own
vision of reality. Before modern times, all of
these tribes lived in harmony with nature.
Then this harmony was broken. If we
In 1492 people
from Europe
want to understand what is happening to
arrived here…
us, we have to look at our history.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012