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I was 21 years old, what did I know? Nobody told us anything. For two years, I applied Nemagon without mask, gloves or protecting clothing. You pump it directly into the ground. Sometimes, the pressure made the liquid splash right in your face. You could feel the hideous smell across 100 meters.
(Interview with banana plantation worker (1)
In the film BANANAS!*, twelve Nicaraguan banana plantation workers are suing Dole for concealing the dangers of a pesticide that they claim made them sterile.
The case is about Nemagon, one of many brand names for Dibromochloropropane (DBCP), a pesticide originally synthesized in 1955. It was used extensively all over the world until 1977, when employees who had handled the chemical at the Occidental Chemical plant in California were found to be sterile (2).
DBCP was used to protect many different crops: vegetables, nuts, fruits, beans and cotton. The target pest was nematodes, tiny worms living in the soil, feeding on the roots. The pesticide was either pumped directly into the ground, or sprayed into the air with irrigation guns (3).
In the 1960s, Standard Fruit (now Dole), Del Monte and United Fruit (now Chiquita) began to use Nemagon massively on Central American, Caribbean and Philippine banana plantations, as well as on sugar, pineapple and cotton plantations. Various chemical companies manufactured the pesticide: the Occidental Corporation, Dow Chemical and Shell Oil. Together, Dow and Shell exported as much as 24 million pounds of Nemagon each year during the 1970s until 1977 (4).
From 1977-1979, DBCP registrations were suspended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which stopped most applications except for use on pineapples in Hawaii. In 1985, the EPA canceled all registrations (5).
Even as early as 1961, an internal Shell report recommended using impermeable protective clothing to prevent contact with the skin, because the product could have undesirable consequences for human reproduction (2, 6).
DBCP interrupts the hormones that act as the body’s “chemical messengers”. This can increase cancer risk and affect the reproduction system. Studies in both animals and humans have found that DBCP can cause low sperm counts and infertility in men (7). Exposure to high levels have also shown to cause kidney and liver damage (5).
Most of the studies conducted so far have focused on males, and it is difficult to confirm DBCP as a carcinogen causing tumors, especially breast cancer. This is because it takes many years before cancer evolves, and it is difficult to isolate DBCP as single factor (7).
However, there are strong reasons to suspect DBCP is the reason for several cases of cancer. Among males who worked up to three years on plantations during the 70s, researchers found an increase of lung cancer cases by 40 percent. Among males who applied pesticides for a period longer than three years, the cases of brain cancer increased by 80 percent (1).
It was mainly men who worked in the fields and applied the chemical. However, women got exposed to DBCP in the packing plants or when they sometimes removed weed or washed the men’s clothes. Children got exposed when they entered the plantations to bring lunch boxes to their fathers (1).
In El Viejo and other villages in Nicaragua’s banana-growing province of Chinandega, where activists estimate 16,500 people were harmed and more than 1,000 died from exposure, DBCP goes under the name "Death’s Dew” (3).
References:
- Jakten på den fullkomliga bananen ("The hunt for the perfect banana") – The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), 2004
- Dibromochloropropane (DBCP): a review – National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
- Nicaragua fights for ‘Death’s Dew’ compensation - Newsday.com
- Victims of Nemagon Hit the Road – Envio.org
- Dibromochloropropane – Toxipedia.org
- Banana Workers Put Shell on Trial – Envio.org
- Pesticides and Breast Cancer Risk: Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) - Cornell University (2007)
See also:
Article and photo gallery from Newsday.com
Other DBCP brand names
| BBC 12 | Nemagon | Nematox |
| Durham Nematocide | Nemanax | OS 1987 |
| Fumagon | Nemapaz | Oxy DBCP |
| Fumazone | Nemaset | RCRA waste number U066 |
| Gro-Tone Nematode | Nemazon | SD-1897 |
| Nemabrom | NCI-C00500 | UN 2872 |
| Nemafume | Nematocide |
List source:
Pesticides and Breast Cancer Risk: Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) - Cornell University (2007)
Consumer Factsheet: Dibromochloropropane - EPA
16 Comments
da best. Keep it going! Thank you
This is a big and important issue.
Really looking forward to see the movie.
Keep up the good work!!
Hi, very nice post. I have been wonder’n bout this issue,so thanks for posting
I wish we would just stop using all pesticides! bugs are natural, chemicals are not. I would rather eat a worm than get cancer.No wonder why other countries laugh at America.
Great work!! Just wondering if the page will be written in spanish as well? Since the topic concerns people that in general don’t speak english it would be great if they could read it! Wanted to send it to friends in Nicaragua that work with these kinds of things, organizing workers etc…but since they wont understand the language there is no point…and thats really a shame cause they are very interested!
I’ll support you 100 %.
Keep up the good work! I’ll never going to buy, nor eat, a Dole banana again. I feel bad for the haunted family members.
capitalism’s clutch on food is the cause of nearly all disease in America. American food productin abroad will only have the same affect on the local people who associate themselves with production. Great work. Look forward to seeing the movie.
I believe this is a fundamentaly important cause. I hope that anyone with legal experience is doing all that they can to help this project!!!
DBCP:’It is used primarily as an unclassified nematocide for soil fumigation of cucumbers, summer squash, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, snap beans, okra, aster, shasta daisy, lawn grasses and ornamental shrubs.’ from http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/contaminants/dw_contamfs/dibromoc.html
Why would it be used on a tree type crop like bananas? Looks like someone made a bad documentary to backup a fraudulent tort case against an multinational food company. The fraudulent court case was tossed out and the plaintiffs in the film were found to be lying in 2007 in a California court. The question is now, can a known fraudulent documentary be shown without paying the piper for libel?
Dear bogus film:
Your own reference answers your question: ”Why would it be used on a tree type crop like bananas?
“…the use as a soil fumigant against nematodes on pineapples in Hawaii.”
Last time I checked pineapples grow on trees ☺
Pineapples don’t grow on trees. They’re bromeliaceous plants.
Good work keep it up!
Now I have to see the film!
In 2009, the earliest in 2010 ought to know better.
It is a pity that this movie did not get a good launch.
It could have been.
What it perhaps could have had on those
was in charge of the launch was more tech-savvy.
Since this kind of movies are very important and reflects what is happening in the world.
Below you can see how it should be subjected to for those interested to read.
There are those who really know how it should go to the launch of a movie anno 2009.
http://www.good.se/index.php?id=7
Here you can read a bit more about the launch.
http://jardenberg.se/b/premiar-for-nasty-old-people-pa-the-pirate-bay/
And for those who do not want to see the film at the cinema or in parliament, you’re welcome to see this.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5117424/Nasty.Old.People.2009.XviD
Excuse the text can be a bit wrong because it is Google Translated. Swedish to English
Good work keep it up!
For what it’s worth, bananas are not technically trees. The pesticide is not used on the plant in any event, it’s used on the ground.