Decades later, when American factory workers producing DBCP were found to be sterile and doctors in Costa Rica began to diagnose sterility in hundreds of banana plantation workers, health officials would question why Dow and Shell continued to sell a product knowing that testicular atrophy may result from prolonged, repeated exposure.
By John Donovan
Shell Oil Company is one of the defendant’s, along with Dole Food Company, Dow Chemical Company and others, in a current lawsuit in the U. S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).
The Plaintiffs – plantation workers from Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica – allege that their health, welfare, and lives have been damaged from exposure to an extremely hazardous chemical pesticide, dibromochloropropane (“DBCP”) manufactured and sold under various trade names, including Nemagon.