The Price of Oil in the Amazon

For almost three decades, Occidental Petroleum has pumped oil out of the ground from hundreds of wells in the Peruvian Amazon. The company sold the drilling rights in 1999 but eight years later, the indigenous Achuar people from the area are suing Occidental in the United States for harming their health and poisoning their water and land. Living on Earth host Steve Curwood talks with Earthrights International attorney Marco Simons about the suit.
CURWOOD: Let’s begin with human health. What do the Achuar say happened to them as a result of the oil activity on their land in northern Peru?

SIMONS: Well, it’s not just what the Achuar say, it’s what we now know from documented health studies in the region. But the Achuar have been complaining about health problems from drinking and otherwise being exposed to contaminated water and contaminated soil from the oil production activities. They’ve experienced everything from stomach pains to vomiting blood and even death. And recent health studies have confirmed that the Achuar population, almost the entire population has high levels of cadmium, a dangerous heavy metal, in their blood. And that somewhere between one third and two thirds of the children of the Achuar communities have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood which is of course known to cause developmental disabilities and other problems in children.

CURWOOD: Now Occidental Petroleum says it has no scientific data of any negative health effects resulting from its operations in Peru.

SIMONS: Yeah, I’m not sure how they can say that because they now have the results both of the studies that we conducted and of the studies conducted by the Peruvian government itself. So, at this point their denials are ringing a bit hollow.

Living on Earth