Together We Stand
San Juan County, New Mexico, one of the last breaths taking natural oasis left in the United States, is now literally having many of its dearest citizens in our community, taking their last breaths, in addition to many unknown illnesses such as cancers, and tumors. Personally, I have been a resident here for the past forty years, while raising a family of four beautiful children, and a loving wife; until the tragic loss of my wife, in addition to the sudden death our two newborn grandchildren due to cardiovascular issues.
At first, I did not realize the coincidence, but later realized that our family was not the only ones who lost family members, sharing many of the same symptoms, which led me to investigate possible cause and effects of the sudden increased number of deaths in our community. After, many hours of research and investigation, one major common denominator kept popping up, “gas drilling”. Yes, neighbors, gas are the invisible plague that has infected our community with unnecessary death and illness. You may ask the question, why gas?
For the past five years, no one understood or recognized the changes within our community until recently. First, I examined the common symptoms such as tumors, eye and skin irritation, birth defects, thyroid disorders, to respiratory illness and emphysema; and realized that statistics for many cities including Daytona, Jena, Blue, and Stanton all experience a rapid decline of health amongst their residents. In addition, all of the cities mentioned, have a major gas wells within 500 feet of the main population.
According to (Mall A.) Drilling Down (2007). Many of the illnesses I mentioned are “a direct cause and effect relationship between possible toxic exposure and the health problems of specific individuals whose stories are told”, which is directly related to the dangerous substances emitted in the atmosphere from gas and oil productions wells such as, volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs illnesses range from short-term illness to cancer or even death.
Further research conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council also explained that, “VOCs react with sunlight to form ground-level ozone, or smog, which is known to be extremely hazardous to human health. Ozone can cause problems such as chest pain, coughing, and throat irritation and can worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma”. In addition, research indicates that premature mortality is also linked to ozone deteeriation due to pollutions.
Although the gas industries are denying claims that the production of gas are responsible for the illnesses in many communities, including our, stating that the researchers lack sufficient data. However, they cannot deny the facts that toxic chemical released during oil productions such as, benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, mercury and Xylene (known as the “BTEX” are all associated to the illness in our town. In addition, we did not experience this epidemic until the major bought into their CEO’s concept of building our economy through gas productions.
In conclusion, San Juan County was healthy prior to the gas wells in our area, and has other resources to build our economy without risking the lives of innocent hard working Americans. Let us bond together in the fight to prepare a better and healthy environment for our love ones and future generations, by initiating a vote to remove gas productions and seek alternative fuels without health risks.

Reference
Mall, A. (2007). Drilling Down. version]. Retrieved from http://www.gwpc.org/e-library/documents/general/Drilling
(2010). Long-term health risk of oil exposure is poorly understood, experts say. Times.

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