Toll of Oil Drilling Felt in Peru's Amazon Basin In the middle
of the Peruvian Amazon, thousands of miles from the BP rig
pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico, oil spills have been a fact
of life for more than 30 years. In villages like San Cristobal,
the indigenous Achuar people believe their maladies are caused
by exposure to oil. They suffer fainting spells, vomiting,
chronic diarrhea, headaches and skin infections. Isac Sandy, 25,
is tall and shy, and got married last year. He has frequent
headaches, and every other day he gets an injection to relieve
the symptoms of an unknown skin condition. If he doesn't get the
shot, his skin breaks out in a spotty white rash, and his entire
body swells. "There's a stream where we always go to fish, and
it's always had oil on top. We catch fish there and eat them.
The fish drink the water, and since we eat them, the oil must
get into us that way," he says. What Is Causing Heath Problems?
This riverside village of open-air, wood-and-thatch homes is
remote, and medical r