Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Forensic Epidemiology and Environmental Justice

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Forensic Epidemiology in the Global Context

  • 692 Accesses

Abstract

The impact of environmental policies and practices lies far beyond the borders of the country in which these decisions are made. Environmental and health issues are raised in the context of industrial development in developing and poorer countries by corporations of developed countries. One such example is provided by Texaco’s oil extraction in the Amazon basin of Ecuador which, as research findings suggest, has led to significant adverse health effects. This chapter focuses on the case of Texaco’s oil extraction in the Amazon basin of Ecuador in order to illustrate the interplay between forensic epidemiology and environmental (in)justice. Because the origins of environmental injustice can only be understood within the larger context in which it occurs, the case study begins with a description of the demographic, environmental, political, and economic context in which Texaco’s oil extraction occurred. The chapter then discusses the legal proceedings that occurred as a result of Texaco’s activities and the role that epidemiology played in those proceedings.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adams, D. (2012). Chevron seeks bank records in Ecuador environmental suit. Reuters, May 5. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.reuters.com/aticle/2012/05/05/us-usa-lawsuit-Chevron-idUSBRE84401A20120505

  • Anon. (2009). Britain’s toxic waste dumped in Africa (multimedia). Huff Post World, March 21. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/britains-toxic-waste-dump_n_167824.html

  • Anon. (2012). For the fourth time, Ecuador appellate court denies Chevron attempt to block enforcement of $18 billion judgment, says Amazon Defense Coalition. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://news.yahoo.com/Fourth-attempt-011010868.html.

  • Anon. (2010). Trafigura found guilty of exporting toxic waste. BBC News Africa, July 23. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10735255.

  • Anton, D. K. (2011). Public international law and international civil litigation: From Ecuador to the United States and back (twice)—Chevron v. Donziger. doi: 10.1093/ijc/dyi151. Retrieved July 26, 2012, from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1960251

  • Baker, D. R. (2012). Chevrons Ecuador case now reaches Canada. Houston Chronicle, May 31. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://chron.com/buisness/article/Chevron-s-Ecuador-case-now-­reaches-Canada-3600649.php

  • Baranowsky, A. B., Young, M., Johnson-Douglas, S., Williams-Keeler, L., & McCarrey, M. (1998). PTSD transmission: A review of secondary traumatization in Holocaust survivor families. Canadian Psychology, 39(4), 247–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barocas, H., & Barocas, C. (1980). Separation and individuation conflict in children of Holocaust survivors. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 11, 6–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, P. M. (2012). A hopeful turn in the Chevron-Ecuador fight. Bloomberg Business Week, May 22. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-22/a-hopeful-turn-in-the-Chevron-Ecuador-fight

  • Barrett, P. M. (2011). Chevron looks to its home court for a comeback win. Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine, July 14. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.businessweek.com/Magazine/Chevron-looks-to-its-home-court-for-a-comeback-win-07142011.html

  • Beanal v. Freepoert-McMoran, 969 F. Supp. 362 (E.D. La. 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1995). Ecological enlightenment: Essays on the politics of the risk society. New York: Humanities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1986). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. New York: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckford, M., & Watt, H. (2009). Secret Trafigura report said “likely cause” of illness was release of toxic gas from dumped waste. The Telegraph, October 16. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6350262/Secret-Trafigura-report-said-likely-cause-of-illness-was-release-of-toxic-gas-from-dumped-waste.html

  • Bejarano, J. (2005). Largo juicio contra Texaco. El Comercio, August 25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biello, D. (2008). Trashed tech dumped overseas: Does the U.S. care? Scientific American, September 19. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id = trashed-tech-dumped-overseas

  • Brave Heart, M. Y. H. (1998). The return to the sacred path: Healing the historical trauma and unresolved grief response among the Lakota through a psychoeducational group intervention. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 68, 287–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. M. (1998). The American Indian Holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 60–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brave Heart, M.Y.H. (2003). The historical trauma response among natives and its relationship with substance abuse: A Lakota illustration. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 36(1), 7–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breilh, J., Branco, J. C., Castleman, B. I., Cherniak, M., Christiani, D. C., Cicollela, A., et al. (2005). Texaco and its consultants (letter). International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 11(2), 217–220.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P. (1987). Popular epidemiology: Community response to toxic waste-induced disease in Woburn, Massachusetts. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 12(3–4), 78–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P. (1992). Popular epidemiology and toxic waste contamination: Lay and professional ways of knowing. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 33(3), 267–281.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle, R. J., & Pellow, D. N. (2006). Environmental justice: Human health and environmental inequalities. Annual Review of Public Health, 27, 103–124.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buzzelli, M. (2007). Bourdieu does environmental justice? Probing the linkages between population health and air pollution epidemiology. Health & Place, 13, 3–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canaday, C., & Rivadeneyra, J. (2001). Initial effects of a petroleum operation on Amazonian birds: Terrestrial insectivores retreat. Biodiversity Conservation, 10, 567–595.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales. (2006). Consulta previa: Ambiente y petróleo en la Amazona Ecuatoriana No. 3. Quito, Ecuador: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohn, P., Klotz, J., Bove, F., Berkowitz, M., & Fagliano, J. (1994). Drinking water contamination and the incidence of leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Environmental Health Perspectives, 102, 556–561.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, P. (1991). The epidemiologist as an expert witness. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 44(Supp 1), 35S–39S.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Comba, P., Binchi, F., Fazzo, L., Martina, L., Menegozzo, M., Miaichilli, F., et al. (2006). Cancer mortality in an area of Campani (Italy) characterized by multiple toxic dumping sites. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 1076, 449–461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Couto, R. A. (1986). Failing health and new prescriptions: Community-based approaches to environmental risks. In C. E. Hill (Ed.), Current health policy issues and alternatives: An applied social science perspective (pp. 53–70). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutter, S., Hodgson, M. E., & Dow, K. (2001). Subsidized inequities: The spatial patterning of environmental risks and federally assisted housing. Urban Geography, 22(1), 29–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danieli, Y. (Ed.). (1998). International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeKraay, W. H. (1978). Pesticides and lymphoma in Iowa. Journal of the Iowa Medical Society, 1978, 50–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drost, N. (2005). Between midnight and the rooster’s crow [documentary film]. Canada: Rocinante Productions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American post-colonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans-Campbell, T. (2008). Historical trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska communities: A multilevel framework for exploring impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(3), 316–338.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fagliano, J., Berry, M., Bove, F., & Burke, T. (1990). Drinking water contamination and the incidence of leukemia: An ecologic study. American Journal of Public Health, 80, 1209–1212.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Felsen, I. (1998). Transgenerational transmission of the effects of the Holocaust: The North American research perspective. In Y. Danieli (Ed.), International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finer, M., Vijay, V., Ponce, F., Jenkins, C. N., & Kahn, T. R. (2009). Ecuador’s Yasuní Biosphere Reserve: A brief modern history and conservation challenges. Environmental Health Letters, 4. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/3/034005.

  • Foxman, B. (1989). Epidemiologists and public health policy. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 42, 1107–1109.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franzen, M. (2006). Evaluating the sustainability of hunting: A comparison of harvest profiles across three Waorani communities. Environmental Conservation, 12, 364–373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcia, E. (2012). Ecuador plaintiffs target Chevron’s assets in Brazil. Reuters, June 27. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USBRE85R01I20120628

  • Greenpeace. (2008, February). Toxic tech: Not in our backyard. Amsterdam: Greenpeace International. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/planet-2/report/2008/2/not-in-our-backyard.pdf

  • Griffith, J., Duncan, R. C., Rigan, W. B., & Pellom, A. C. (1989). Cancer mortality in US counties with hazardous waste sites and ground water pollution. Archives of Environmental Health, 44, 69–74.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gump, J. P. (2010). Reality matters: The shadow of trauma on African American subjectivity. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27(1), 42–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, G., & Patrinos, A. (2005). Indigenous peoples, poverty, and human development in Latin America: 1994–2004. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAC/Resources/FinalExecutiveSummary_Eng_May05.pdf

  • Harner, J., Warner, K., Pierce, J., & Huber, T. (2002). Urban environmental justice indices. Professional Geographer, 54(3), 318–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbert, B. (2005, October 20). Editorials/Op-ed: Rainforest Jekyll & Hyde? New York Times Retrieved July 3, 2012, from http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/opinion/20herbert.html?_r=2%26;oref=slogin

  • Hinton, K. (2012). Shareholders slam Chevron with request for SEC investigation over Ecuador judgment. PRNewswire via COMTEX, May 14. Retrieved July 3, 2012, from http://www.texacotoxico.org/eng/node/1251.

  • Hurtig, A.-K., & San Sebastián, M. (2002). Geographical differences in cancer incidence in the Amazon basin of Ecuador in relation to residence near oil fields. International Journal of Epidemiology, 31, 1021–1027.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hurtig, A.-K., & San Sebastián, M. (2004). Incidence of childhood leukemia and oil exploitation in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 10, 245–250.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Medicine. (1999). Toward environmental justice: Research, education, and health policy needs. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karl, T. L. (1997). The paradox of plenty: Oil booms and petro-states. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karl, T. L. (1999). The perils of the petro-state: Reflections on the paradox of plenty. Journal of International Affairs, 53, 31–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keefe, P. R. (2012). Reversal of fortune. The New Yorker, January 9. Retrieved July 9, 2012, from http://www.newyoyker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_Keefe?currentPage = all

  • Kellermann, N. P. F. (2001). Transmission of Holocaust trauma: An integrative view. Psychiatry, 64(3), 256–267.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kimerling, J. (2006a). Amazon crude. New York: National Resource Defense Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimerling, J. (2006b). Indigenous peoples and the oil frontier in Amazonia: The case of Ecuador, ChevronTexaco, and Aguinda v Texaco. International Law and Politics, 38, 413–664.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimerling, J. (1995). Rights, responsibilities, and realities: Environmental protection law in Ecuador’s Amazon oil fields. Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas, 2, 293–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimerling, J. (2008). Transnational operations, bi-national injustice: Indigenous Amazonian peoples and Ecuador, ChevronTexaco, and Aguinda v Texaco. L’Observateur des Nations Unies, 24, 207–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klasfeld, A. (2012). Ecuadoreans are two steps closer toward $18.2b Chevron judgment. Courthouse News Service, January 9. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/09/42878.htm

  • Leary, J. D. (2005). Posttraumatic slave syndrome: America’s legacy of enduring injury and healing. Milwaukee, OR: Uptone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowin, R. G. (1983). Cross-generation transmission of pathology in Jewish families of Holocaust survivors. California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego, CA. Dissertation Abstracts International, 44, 3533.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mallin, K. (1990). Investigation of a bladder cancer cluster in Northwestern Illinois. American Journal of Epidemiology, 132(Suppl 1), S96–S106.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mapstone, N. (2012). Chevron sued in Canada over Ecuador case. Financial Times, May 31. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e0933b16-aaa7-11e1-9331-00144feabdc0.html#axzz20Ja1DCKj

  • Martz, J. D. (1987). Politics and petroleum in Ecuador. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAteer, E., & Pulver, S. (2009). The corporate boomerang: Shareholder transnational advocacy networks targeting oil companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Global Environmental Politics, 9, 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menzies, P. (2009). Homeless Aboriginal men: Effects of intergenerational trauma. In J. D. Hulchanski, P. Campsie, S. Chau, S. Hwang, & E. Paradis (Eds.), Finding home: Policy options for addressing homelessness in Canada (e-book). Toronto: Cities Centre, University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzies, P. (2010). Intergenerational trauma from a mental health perspective. Native Social Work Journal, 7, 63–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagata, D. K., & Cheng, W. J. Y. (2003). Intergenerational communication of race-related trauma by Japanese American former internees. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 73(3), 266–278.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Najem, G. R., Louria, D. B., Lavenhar, M. A., & Feuerman, M. (1985). Clusters of cancer mortality in New Jersey municipalities; with special reference to chemical toxic waste disposal sites and per capita income. International Journal of Epidemiology, 14, 528–537.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nickens, H. W. (1990). A socioeconomic and historical overview of environmental contamination and minority communities. In Proceedings of the National Minority Health Conference, Atlanta, GA, December 4-6, 1990. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole, C., & Rothman, K. J. (1990). Epidemiologic science and public health policy (letter). Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 43, 1270.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Powers, B., & Quarles, M. (2006, April 5). Texaco’s waste management practices were illegal and violated industry standards. Amazon Defense Coalition. Retrieved July 3, 2012, from http://www.texacotoxico.org/eng/node/46

  • Reddall, B., & Garcia, E. (2012). Arbitrators say they can hear Chevron-Ecuador case. Reuters, February 28. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/us-chevron-ecuador-idUSTRE81R29I20120228

  • Rosenthal, E. (2009). Smuggling Europe’s waste to poorer countries. New York Times, September 27. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/science/earth/27waste.html?_r = 1%26;pagewanted = print

  • Rothman, K. J., & Poole, C. (1985). Science and policy making. American Journal of Public Health, 75(4), 340–341.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Russi, M. B., Borak, J. B., & Cullen, C. R. (2008). An examination of cancer epidemiology studies among populations living close to toxic waste sites. Environmental Health, 7, 32. doi:10.1186/1476-069-7-32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • San Sebastián, M., Armstrong, B., Córdoba, J. A., & Stephens, C. (2001). Exposures and cancer incidence near oil fields in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 58, 517–522.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • San Sebastián, M., Armstrong, B., & Stephens, C. (2002). Outcomes of pregnancy among women living in the proximity of oil fields in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 8, 312–319.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • San Sebastián, M., & Hurtig, A. K. (2005). Oil development and health in the Amazon basin of Ecuador: The popular epidemiology process. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 799–807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, S. (2004). Crude chronicles. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sigal, J., & Weinfeld, M. (1999). Intergenerational transmission of trauma: Recent contributions form the literature of family systems approaches to treatment. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 53(2), 225–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, M. (2011). The Netherlands: Court upholds fine for dumping waste in Africa. New York Times, December 23. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/world/europe/court-upholds-fine-against-trafigura-over-toxic-waste-dumping-in-africa.html?pagewanted=print

  • Slovic, P. (1999). Trust, emotion, sex, politics, and science: Surveying the risk-assessment battlefield. Risk Analysis, 19(4), 689–701.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sotero, M. M. (2006). A conceptual model of historical trauma: Implications for public health practice and research. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 1(1), 93–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suárez, E., Morales, M., Cueva, R., Utreras, B. V., Zapata-Ríos, G., Toral, E., et al. (2009). Oil industry, wild meat trade and roads: Indirect effects of oil extraction activities in a protected area in north-eastern Ecuador. Animal Conservation, 12, 364–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weed, D. L. (1994). Science, ethics guidelines, and advocacy in epidemiology. Annals of Epidemiology, 4, 166–171.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg, A. (1972). Science and trans-science. Minerva, 10, 109–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitbeck, L. B., Adams, G. W., Hoyt, D. R., & Chen, X. (2004). Conceptualizing and measuring historical trauma among American Indian people. American Journal of Community Psychology, 33(3/4), 119–130.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jr. Whitten, N. E., & International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). (1976). Ecuadorian ethnocide and indigenous ethnogenesis: Amazonian resurgence amidst Andean colonialism. Copenhagen: International Secretariat of IWGIA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widener, P. (2007). Oil conflict in Ecuador: A photographic essay. Organization & Environment, 20, 84–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiseman, H., Metzl, E., & Barber, J. P. (2006). Anger, guilt, and intergenerational communication of trauma in the interpersonal narratives of second generation Holocaust survivors. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76(2), 176–184.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2003). Report and recommendation of the president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation to the executive directors on a country assistance strategy for the Republic of Ecuador. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/05/07/000112742_20030507173151/Rendered/PDF/R2003000690258170EC0CAS.pdf

  • Yankauer, A. (1984). Science and social policy. American Journal of Public Health, 74, 1148–1149.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yehuda, R., Halligan, S. L., & Grossman, R. (2001). Childhood trauma and risk for PTSD: Relationship to intergenerational effects of trauma, parental PTSD, and cortisol excretion. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 733–753.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • 40 C.F.R. § 435.32.

    Google Scholar 

  • 25 U.S.C. § 1350 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Sana Loue

Authors
  1. Sana Loue
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sana Loue .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University, Euclid Avenue 10900, Cleveland, 44106-4945, Ohio, USA

    Sana Loue

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Loue, S. (2013). Forensic Epidemiology and Environmental Justice. In: Loue, S. (eds) Forensic Epidemiology in the Global Context. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6738-0_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6738-0_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6737-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6738-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation