The Health Effects of Oil Contamination Today, oil is something unavoidable to produce. Oil is a necessity for the economy for either a fuel source or a commodity. Oil companies are expanding all over the world to meet the growing demand for oil. Many countries main source of money comes from oil such as Nigeria and Kuwait. Habitat can be contaminated due to oil extraction, in addition human health is impacted. In Kuwait human health problems such as blood poisoning have occurred due to the inhalation of smoke and fog from burning oil wells during the Gulf War. Oil spills in both Northeast Ecuador and Niger Delta have largely contaminated the environment and harmed the health of the people living in these areas. Drilling in the rainforest of Ecuador by Chevron in which they dumped the waste product into soil and rivers instead of pumping it back in the oil well caused major health problems such as birth defects and cancer. Similarly, oil spills in Exxon-Valdez and Deepwater Horizon have caused psychological health effects for the people living in the area. The economic development of a country determines the types of health effects. In addition, health effects are caused by the speed by which the oil spill is cleaned up and the geographic location. The health effects associated with oil contamination are cancer and pulmonary ailments. In addition, psychological, reproductive, and dermatologic health problems.
Ecuadoran Court Orders Chevron to Pay $17 Billion for Oil Pollution in Amazon Chevron is the second largest oil company in the United States. Chevron was fined over $17 billion due to the contamination in Ecuador. Since the 70’s this company has illegally dumped billions of gallons of oil waste in the Ecuadorian Rainforest. This is the second largest compensation fund for environmental damages in which the Bp oil spill in the Gulf Coast was first at $20 billion. The trial has been going on for 18 years in which Chevron kept fighting to not have to pay. Chevron believes that they are the victim and claim the courts judgment is the product of fraud and is contrary to scientific evidence. Even though the evidence in this trial is Chevrons. The company hired many scientists to conduct soil samples and those samples were contaminated and that is the evidence the court has been using. The area contaminated is the headquarters of the Amazon River. The pollution in the water does not just stay in that area it moves down stream to other areas. Historically this is the first case of the indigenous people suing a multinational corporation and winning. Also, that a multinational company is determined accountable in a court system for environmental damages for human rights violations.
Chevron’s Ecuador Disaster Ecuador is considered a mega diverse country. Chevron entered a contract with Ecuadorian government in the 60s in which they would extract oil from the Amazon Rainforest basin. Over the course of the next 26 years chevron extracted billions of gallons of crude oil. Ecuador is home to many indigenous groups that live off the land. They use rivers for fishing, bathing, cooking. Oil extraction begins with pits being lined with tarps which prevents oil waste from getting into the ground. In Ecuador Chevron did not follow the same procedures for oil extraction as they do in the US. In Ecuador Chevron did not line the pit and instead of reinjection they dumped into the river. They allowed the toxins to seep into the groundwater and the company installed pipes to have the sludge lead out to the river. It is estimated with their time in Ecuador that they have dumped 16 billion gallons into the amazon. The dumping of toxic waste into the rivers of the amazon greatly impacted the indigenous peoples. They were exposed to several health effects such as brain damage, respiratory problems, kidney damage, liver damage, bone marrow damage, blood poisoning, cancer, birth defects, stomach and skin irritation, or death. The soils in the amazon have high levels of toxins over 10,000 the maximum tolerance. More than 9,000 indigenous people in the Chevron extraction area will have cancer in the upcoming years to come. Chevron admitted that they were harming the environment in Ecuador and would tell their employees to not publicize oil spills that occurred by hiding them and destroying evidence of the spills. Chevron struck a deal with Ecuador to spend $40 million to clean up some of the oil sights in the country. However, Chevron never actually removed the toxins they just covered them with soil. The amount they spent on the cleanup was less than 1% of the $40 million. After years of Chevron fighting in court the Ecuadorian government issued $18 billion against Chevron. Chevron claims that they will never pay and instead has lunched campaigns to prove that they are green. Chevron has paid over $5 million to try to get the US to punish Ecuador and cut trade purposes. When Chevron never even paid that much money to help remediate Ecuador.
Chevron vs. Indigenous Tribes in Ecuador- The Real Price of Oil After Chevron finished drilling the oil waste pits were abandoned. This caused groundwater and soils to be contaminated. If this would have occurred in the US than the sites would have already been cleaned up by now. However, since Ecuador is a third world country Texaco took advantage of that and cut corners in the oil extraction process.