July 21, 2022

Pesticide made us sterile, banana workers say

Horrifying

BBC News

Tens of thousands of former banana workers say they were made sterile by a pesticide used by US companies on plantations in Latin America in the 1970s.

The United States restricted and then banned its use on the US mainland because of the health risks, but workers in Central America and South America continued to be exposed to it. Grace Livingstone reports from Panama on the workers' decades-long battle for justice.

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Across Panama, there are more than 1,100 former banana workers who say that a pesticide used by United Fruit on the plantations made them sterile.

The pesticide, called Di-bromochloropropane or DBCP, targets microscopic worms that damaged banana plants. But it can also affect men's fertility.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-62120058