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A maze of pipelines fills the sky as children swim near them in La Victoria, a town outside Sushufindi. The river is infamous for contamination and where many people tie their illness. It’s said residents are exposed to levels of oil-related contaminants significantly exceeding internationally recognized safety limits. In April 1993, the center sent a team of Harvard-trained scientists to Ecuador's Amazon, where they collected 33 drinking and bathing water samples from inhabited areas surrounding Petro Ecuador production sites. The samples were analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a toxic element of crude oil.