Lawyer: Pesticide Left Workers Sterile

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ

LOS ANGELES – A lawyer for a dozen Nicaraguan banana workers argued Wednesday that Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Dow Chemical Co. robbed his clients of the ability to have children by overexposing them to a harmful pesticide.

The claim by attorney Duane Miller, who represents the workers, came in his closing argument in a three-month civil trial targeting the world’s largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables and the giant chemical company.

“As adults, we decide whether we want children or not,” Miller told jurors. “This is a case about a decision made for my clients instead of by my clients.”

The lawsuit accuses Dole and Standard Fruit Co., now a part of Dole, of negligence and fraudulent concealment while using the pesticide DBCP in Nicaragua.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved using the chemical, intended for killing microscopic worms on the roots of banana plants, until 1979. In Nicaragua, it was legal from 1973 until 1993.

The workers also claim Dow “actively suppressed information about DBCP’s reproductive toxicity.”

Dole and Dow deny liability.

Among five cases filed in Los Angeles County by at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, this is the first to go to trial.

During his closing argument, Dow attorney Gennaro “Gus” Filice said the workers did not have enough exposure to DBCP to have any effect. Experts analyzed the exposure and found it to be insignificant, he said.

“These numbers are important,” he said. “They tell the story.”

Filice also claimed many workers had other health problems that could have made it difficult to have children, including venereal disease and infections.

Miller claimed the growers improperly applied the pesticide in amounts far exceeding guidelines.

Many of the workers had slept at the banana plantation, where their clothes became wet from water dripping from pesticide-treated trees, and they routinely breathed vapor from the pesticide, Miller told jurors.

Miller also pointed to documents from the 1960s and 1970s that he said showed Dole and Dow were aware of dangers connected with the pesticide.

“From the beginning the warning signs were there,” Miller said.

He noted that medical experts who had examined his clients found 11 of 12 had no sperm in their bodies and detected other symptoms reflecting exposure to a toxic chemical.

In his closing argument, Dole attorney Rick McKnight said Miller told half-truths, and he tried to poke holes in Miller’s accounts about his clients.

A judge previously granted Dow’s petition to apply Michigan law to the amount and types of possible damages.

Michael L. Brem, one of the attorneys for Midland, Mich.-based Dow, has said this would cap any compensatory damages at $394,200 per plaintiff.