generalspeaking

The Legacy of Pesticides

"It's a sperm-killer."
"Thousands of individuals were knowingly put into the zone of risk of these pesticides after it was banned."
Stuart H.Smith, legal team

Banned in most of the United States in 1977 -- after the chemical dibromochloropropane (DBCP), an active ingredient in Nemagon -- after it was found to have caused sterility among thousands of male workers exposed to it at Dow, Shell and Occidental plants across America -- food growers based in the United States continued its use through the early 1980s at banana and pineapple plantations, according to lawsuits, in countries with lower environmental standards.

Nicaraguan plantation workers launched a wave of lawsuits in the 1990s. Those lawsuits were blocked by Dow and Shell, as well as by the growers Dole Fruit, Del Monte Fruit and Chiquita Brands, on the grounds that the U.S. was not the place to try them since the damage occurred in Central America. Nicaraguan courts awarded hundreds of millions in compensation to victims, while Dow, Shell and Doyle refused to pay, declaring that those courts lacked jurisdiction.

A Florida court denied recognition of a $97 million judgement against Dow and Dole in 2009, with the claim that the Nicaraguan proceedings were biased against the American companies. Lawsuits against Dow and Dole were thrown out by a California judge in the same year, after the judge ruled that the plaintiffs and their lawyers had made use of fraudulent tactics.

After settling claims decades ago, the chemical and banana companies argue they have no additional responsibilities. With the exception of Dole, they settled in 1997 with 26,000 former banana workers in Central America, Africa and the Philippines for a piffling $41 million. In 2014 Dole agreed to compensate over 1,700 former banana workers from Nicaragua for an undisclosed amount.

Survivors of the thousands of victims -- where the pesticide was sprayed at banana plantations around Central America, sterilizing workers -- have attempted to gain compensation ever since. They have taken to suing Dow Chemical, Shell Oil and Occidntal Chemical (now OxyChem) in France in hopes of recovering hundreds of millions in unpaid damages awarded to them by Nicaraguan courts where many of the poisonings happened.

Other countries were also harmed by the use of the pesticide Nemagon. A total of $805 million in damages was ordered by Nicaraguan courts to be paid to hundreds of victims, the companies refusing to pay, insisting the courts' lack of jurisdiction protects them and that the trials were unfair. The companies have significant assets in Europe where 1,245 former workers and their relatives are attempting to collect the compensation awards.

Now, a French judge is set to determine whether court opinions in other countries can be enforced in France and in the European Union, capping decades of legal maneuvering between the U.S. where are based, and countries in Central America and beyond where the pesticides were ultimately used despite their being banned in the United States with the knowledge of their deadly effects.

Labels: Central America, Chiquita Brands, Del Monte Fruit, Dole Fruit, Dow Chemical, Dow Oil, Nicaragua, Occidental Chemical, Pesticides, Poisoning, Toxic

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, October 08, 2019