Thousands Of Workers Say Pesticides Made Them Sterile

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070709/banana-workers/

Workers Say Pesticides Made Them Sterile


NOAKI SCHWARTZ | July 9, 2007 04:46 AM EST | AP

LOS ANGELES — The pesticide was designed to kill worms infesting the roots of banana trees on Latin American plantations. But at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama have filed five lawsuits in this country claiming they were left sterile after being exposed in the 1970s to the pesticide known as DBCP.

Jury selection for the first of the lawsuits is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

"This is the first time any case for a banana worker has come before a U.S. court," said Duane Miller, one of the attorneys representing more than 30 Nicaraguan plaintiffs who worked on plantations from 1964 to 1990.

The cases raise the issue of whether multinational companies should be held accountable in the country where they are based or the countries where they employ workers, legal experts said.

A verdict in favor of the workers could open the door for others to file similar claims in the U.S., where juries are known for awarding bigger judgments.

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[Donnachaidh]

1. Keep an eye out for reps who will try to enact rules keeping these

lawsuits OUT of the US courts.

[candice]

2. Buy organic, but not agribusiness organic. Agribusiness organic

wants profits above all, and diluting the organic standards is one of its tactics.

[fed-up]

3. if you are not buying organic you're contributing to poisoning of farmworkers-take responsibility nt