“Polluters try as much as possible not to let connections be drawn from pollution to health issues, they try to connect it to something else, like genetics. This is a known tactic,” said Nnimmo Bassey, executive director for health at the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, a not-for-profit environmental group based in Nigeria.
Bassey’s work focuses on the Niger Delta, where a 2011 U.N. environment report found pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in Ogoniland, Nigeria, penetrated further and deeper than people realized, causing grave health and environmental risks.
“They do it in South Sudan, in Nigeria, everywhere,” he said.
That’s what baby Ping’s father, Cornelious Mayak Geer, believes is happening to his family.
In July 2019, the Greater Pioneer Operating Company flew the family to Nairobi, Kenya, for what they thought would be medical treatment for Ping. Geer says the company told him that they would first do tests to determine if Ping’s deformities were tied to oil pollution. If they found a link, they would pay for treatment, Geer says the company officials told him.
Doctors at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi told Geer that the baby needed surgery, according to Geer, but Greater Pioneer refused to pay. Geer says he pushed for medical tests to determine whether Ping’s problems were linked to oil pollution, but the doctors in Nairobi said they couldn’t do such tests.
Geer refused to give up, and in January, Greater Pioneer flew them to Berlin, where the whole family underwent 10 days of tests on their blood and hair and were sent home. The baby received no medical care.
Geer said the company told him the child’s problems were genetic and not caused by oil pollution. But they never shared any test results with him.
