http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/contaminants/dw_contamfs/chlordan.htmlThe Colonias of the Rio Grande Valley
Revolutionary Worker #1063, July 23, 2000
This account was written by a youth from Houston, Texas, who travelled to the Rio Grande Valley to investigate the conditions of Mexican immigrants - as part of the process of writing a new Programme of the RCP. The story has been slightly edited for publication.
"She mentioned she had heard of children being born without legs or brains because of pesticides being sprayed by airplanes onto the crops which drift over into the colonias. Also, she spoke of several children who have lead poisoning in their blood. A lot of people suffer from headaches and bronchitis. One area was in danger because a truck carrying pesticides wrecked and burned. Little children were riding their bicycles through the area. The government denies all these problems, but this is all true."
http://revcom.us/a/v22/1060-69/1063/riogrand.htmWhile I'm not much on communism, I worked for a law firm that represented some of these Tex/Mexicans whose children were born without brains.
In Dow v. Alfaro, Shell and Dow whined and got the case dismissed against a group of Costa Rican banana plantation workers who were sterilized by the multinationals' product. The suit was filed against Shell about half a mile from their corporate headquarters, but the companies argued that it wasn't a convenient forum. They shipped a substance outlawed in the U.S. to Costa Rica. Many of these chemicals are legal in third-world countries who grow the food and ship it back to the U.S.
http://books.google.com/books?id=aWCbMZ69hekC&pg=PA289&lpg=PA289&dq=alfaro+v.+dow&source=web&ots=xxbedrJYCS&sig=6_IhcnXIkSmXWbtaH_9Pd1JFTVs&hl=en