An unpunished tragedy

Orlando Barrantes Cartin

Due to the "necessity" to combat the nematodes affecting banana plantations and other crops worldwide, Shell Oil Company and Dow Chemical Company, began producing the nematicide DBCP (known by its brand names "Nemagon" or "Fumazone") in the nineteen sixties after years of study.

Between 1968 and 1979, some 5 million liters of DBCP were injected into the soil around the base of banana plants through manual applications by thousands of banana workers in the Atlantic and Southern regions of Costa Rica, to fight the microscopic worms found in cultivated soil. Workers used neither gloves, protective clothing nor any type of equipment to protect them from absorption of the pesticide through the skin or by inhalation.

The workers have insisted that they were never warned of the risks to which they were subjected. These workers were hired by US-based corporations such as Standard Fruit Company, Chiquita Brands and Del Monte Fresh Produce, as well as by the Costa Rican Ministry of Agriculture’s commercial banana project at the "Los Diamantes" Experimental Station.

The truth is that the workers were exposing themselves to a serious danger by coming in contact with DBCP several hours per day during months or years. Workers were exposed to DBCP from vapors that remained within the arch of the enormous banana leaves, or when preparing the product, many times by hand, in drums or barrels, or when the pesticide splattered off stones and other objects during application.

There are also known instances of accidents where a worker was literally bathed in the product. It was common practice for the workers to dump the product into streams to kill quantities of fish which were then consumed in their homes. So great were the quantities of DBCP absorbed by the workers that, during the night, their urine at times gave off the characteristic smell of the pesticide. Women and children who went into the areas of application to bring the workers their lunch remained in direct contact to the vapors for extended periods of time. Women were exposed in washing clothes impregnated with DBCP without any type of protection.

The parties responsible for the tragedy of DBCP –considered by some accomplists in the greatest tragedy in the history of labor anywhere in the world– are the North American enterprises Dow Chemical Company, Shell Oil Company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, Standard Fruit Company (Dole), Chiquita Brands and to a lesser degree the Israeli state-owned enterprise Dead Sea Bromine Co.

Dow Chemical was the pioneer in the fabrication of the nematicide, whose active ingredient is 1,2-dibromo-3-cloropropane (DBCP). In 1958, a confidential memo to its managers explained that testicular atrophy, sterility and severe damage to the lungs and kidneys in animals had been detected following exposure to the pesticide. In spite of this and the fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was unsatisfied with the minimal precautionary measures proposed by this and other companies, sale and distribution worldwide of DBCP was finally authorized.

In 1975, Dow Chemical alerted one of its major clients, Standard Fruit Company, about the effect that indiscriminate application could cause to the banana workers and decided to discontinue the sale of this product. The reaction of Standard Fruit was immediate. Due to its attractive low price, Standard Fruit promised to assume the responsibility for any future lawsuits in exchange for an ongoing supply of the pesticide. To both Standard and Dow this seemed to be a good business deal. They came to an understanding, signed an agreement governing future liability, and during the next four years, thousands of human beings in the banana plantations of the Third World were slowly sickened, due to continued production and application of DBCP. The workers were never alerted to the danger that they were being exposed to, nor were they supplied with any sort of protective equipment.

In addition to the workers that labored in banana plantations directly, another sector which is rarely mentioned by the press must be added to the affected population. This sector is the women who went into the areas of application to take lunch to their partners and who on many occasions applied the product while the banana worker ate his meal. Others who are rarely mentioned are the children, who besides taking lunch to the workers, sometimes remained hours with their fathers within the plant arch of the banana plantations. According to estimates, the total population affected by DBCP in Costa Rica reaches some thirty thousand persons, taking into consideration that the pesticide was applied between 1967 and 1979, and that more than 5 million kilograms of Nemagon were imported from the United States.

The affected population suffers different levels of sterility (azoospermia, oligoospermia), testicular atrophy and pain, liver, kidney and stomach cancer, severe allergies, bone problems, sight deficiencies, menstrual and hormonal alterations, children with serious congenital problems, moral and psychological damage.

Efforts in United States or Costa Rican courts to have the injustice acknowledged, punished or compensation provided have also proved painful and have ultimately been largely fruitless. Costa Rican and North American attorneys were contracted to present lawsuits in North American courts against the culpable enterprises. These lawsuits never came to trial and a reduced group of workers have received settlements out of court with indemnities for sums that can be characterized as ridiculous. For instance, many of the affected Costa Rican workers received a sum of US$100, and few indeed received as much as $1000, while in the United States farmers and workers affected by DBCP have received an average of US$100,000 as an indemnity.

On November 17, 1998, affected workers who are members of CONATRAB held a march through the main streets of San Jose, where they demanded a solution to their claims. The solution to this problem touches various aspects. One is that the Costa Rican government allocate sufficient resources to medically and scientifically attend to the men, women and children who were affected by DBCP. To date, there is not one medical program designed specifically for this population, in spite of the fact that the State’s responsibility was confirmed in the Final Report of the government National Ombudsman’s office(Defensoria de los Habitantes), documented in File 250-23-October 1998. The Defensoria de los Habitantes has also insisted on the implementation of a pension program. The principal demand of those affected is a payment as compensation, to be provided by the agrochemical and banana companies that are responsible for the problem.

The report issued by Costa Rica’s Defensoria de los Habitantes is very clear in pointing out the responsibility of the agrochemical manufacturing companies, the banana companies and the Costa Rican State in the exposure of the workers to DBCP. The report points out that thousands of people have not received any compensation and that they require medical and psychological attention. The report made a series of recommendations to the Executive Branch, among which the most important is the need to open negotiations with the companies so that the workers receive a fair indemnity. Furthermore, the report recommends specialized medical attention and pensions for the affected persons.

Thanks to the struggle which is being waged by those affected, the present government issued an executive decree that created an Inter-Agency Commission, formed by representatives of the National Insurance Institute (INS), the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Foreign Relations. During eleven months (December 1998-October 1999), this Commission carried out a detailed investigation on the DBCP problem. Now, the Commission is obliged to present a report with its recommendations to the Executive Branch. On Friday November 29th, 1999 the Commission gave a verbal summary to the leaders of CONATRAB where the main elements of the investigation were presented along with its recommendations. This report confirmed and expanded on the Report of the Defensoria de los Habitantes and makes recommendations to the Executive Branch which cover the three basic demands upon which CONATRAB had always insisted: pensions, specialized medical attention and the creation of an indemnity fund (the latter to be created with funds provided by the banana and chemical companies).

The complete report, together with its recommendations, was presented to Costa Rica’s President in the last months of 1999. It is necessary to wait and see what the President decides to do now, as well as the reaction of the banana companies. It is hoped that the effect of this report will be to help resolve the serious injury caused to thousands of people. CONATRAB is prepared, countrywide, to assure that the Commission’s recommendations will be complied with.

Hundreds of workers who were affected by DBCP meet every month, in all of the different places in the country where CONATRAB Committees function, to listen to the latest developments of their struggle and to make the necessary preparations to demonstrate their desire to continue forward. In their ongoing mobilization, they are the guarantee that the tragedy of DBCP will not go unpunished.

STERILITY: The exposed workers suffer various degrees of sterility, that can generally be described as of aplasia of germinal cells (their bodies do not produce sperm). Some do not produce sperm at all (azoospermia), while others produce in numbers far below the normal level (oligoospermia). There are also men who exhibit high or normal levels of sperm, but of a deformed character. For example, sperm with limited mobility (teratospermia). In all of these cases it is almost impossible for the men to father children. This physiological sterility constitutes the chemical castration of thousands of men.

CANCER: It has been proven that DBCP causes testicular and stomach cancer. Among the workers who were exposed to DBCP, there have been cases of stomach, testicular, kidney and duodenal cancer.

DEGENERATIVE PROBLEMS: Some men manifest diverse damage, such as problems of the central nervous system, degenerative processes such as loss of teeth, muscular pain and loss of vision and blindness.

GENEALOGICAL AFFLICTIONS: Many women of the region where DBCP was applied have been unable to become mothers because they abort in the first weeks of gestation. Others suffer tumors, pains in their bones and muscular atrophies. They also suffer from hormonal disturbances and other alterations to their menstrual cycles.

GENETIC MALFORMATIONS: In the cases of persons exposed to DBCP who were later able to father children, their children manifest genetic problems. For example, a child was born with a severe red blood cells ailment and must receive weekly transfusions. The victim suffers from dizziness, heat flashes and walks with difficulties. There are hundreds of children with mental and physical problems.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS: The incapacity to produce children has caused serious repercussions, including impotence, severe depression, grief and confusion. These afflictions have resulted in loss of work, alcoholism and threats of suicide. Some of these victims require psychiatric attention.

SOCIAL REJECTION: The affected persons and their families are victims of social isolation. Many were abandoned by their wives. Some matrimonies agreed to seek other men without problems so the women could become pregnant, causing marital imbalances and separations. The sterile men are the target for social ridicule, since the culture to which the workers belong, measures a man’s value based on his virility, which is evidenced by the number of children one has. The children of the affected persons who have deformities or illnesses suffer humiliations from other children.

ENVIRONMENT: DBCP is considered to be highly persistent and mobile. Its decomposition in the soil is slow. It can filter through certain terrain. It is a contaminator of land and surface water.

"Industrial studies....were maintained in secret from the local employees of the chemical companies and (U.S.) farmers who used DBCP in the plantations. Now, tragically, twenty years later, the sterilization predicted by the laboratory exams has become reality: a growing number of workers in the manufacturing plants and in the banana plantations claim the impossibility of having children. The Environmental Protection Agency finally prohibited DBCP for almost all its agricultural use in the USA, but the enterprises then distributed all of its saleable production overseas, where it continued to be used. The result was that more Costa Rican workers became sterile. The history of DBCP is horrendous."