Nalleli Cobo was 20 years old when I first met her. I was being shown around cities south of Los Angeles, where there are active oil rigs close to homes, schools, playgrounds and people are seriously ill from the pollution.
An oil well had been drilled 30 feet from Nalleli’s apartment building when she was nine years old. She began to have nosebleeds so severe she had to sleep sitting up so she wouldn’t drown in her own blood. She developed severe asthma that affects her to this day, along with stomach cramps, nausea, excruciating headaches and body spasms that made it hard for her to walk.
Read more at the Sunday Paper.