Injury From Pesticide Strikes Workers
Central American banana workers claim to have been left sterile after being exposed to a dangerous pesticide that was improperly applied and used in amounts exceeding guidelines. The lawsuit accuses Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit Co., now a part of Dole, of negligence and fraudulent concealment while using the pesticide DBCP in the 1970s. The case is one of five filed in Los Angeles County by at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama and includes claims that Dow Chemical Co. and Amvac Chemical Corp., manufacturers of the pesticide, actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity.
The workers contend that Dole sprayed the pesticide rather than injecting it into the soil or mixing it with ground water as its manufacturer recommended on the product's label. As a result residue would remain in the air, on the dirt and on these plants, where the workers toiled daily. All but one of the current plaintiffs has no sperm in their bodies as a result of exposure to DBCP.
DBCP was used to kill microscopic worms on the roots of the banana plants. DBCP was approved for use in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency until 1979. In Nicaragua, it was legal from 1973 until 1993. These claims bring to light the poor work environment that so many face to support their families.
