AFFLICTED NICARAGUAN BANANA WORKERS CHOOSE DEATH OVER INJUSTICE.

In Nicaragua, former banana workers, sickened over the years by the pesticide Nemagon, threatened in March to bury themselves alive or set themselves on fire to get the Asamblea Nacional (AN) to act on a US$6 million request for assistance for their plight. The threat was more than stunned

officials were willing to risk and on March 18 the government agreed to several of the workers' specific demands. The government agreed to supply medicines and food aid to the stricken workers, to help 80 of them get visas to the US, and to discuss lifetime pensions for them. The purpose of the visas is to enable victims to press lawsuits against their former employers and Nemagon's manufacturers.

The effects of Nemagon exposure are many and varied, according to reports, because the chemical targets the endocrine system. Male victims suffer reduced, impaired, or decimated sperm counts, leaving 67% of Nicaraguan banana workers permanently sterile. Females suffer menstrual disruptions, skin discoloration, repeated miscarriages, uterine and breast cancer. Both genders suffer migraines, permanent headaches, bone pain, blindness, fever, hot flashes, loss of fingernails and hair, weight loss, anxiety and nervous disorders, depression, hematomas of the skin, liver damage, kidney, stomach, and other cancers. The cancer deaths of 466 Nicaraguans have been attributed to Nemagon.

The government was also encouraged to act by the arrival in Managua of somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 banana workers who walked 140 km from Chinandega department to demand that the government live up to commitments it made to them in March 2004. This time, they arrived on March 2 and stayed until the burial and immolation threats punctuated their resolve.

The virulent pesticide Nemagon has been used in Central America, and extensively in Chinandega, since the 1970s. More than 30,000 workers were exposed to it, even after it was banned in the US in 1979. Dow Chemical and Shell Chemical are reported to have exported 24 million pounds of the poison per year during this period (see NotiCen, 1991-08-09). The chemical kills a microscopic worm that reduces production and damages the appearance of bananas.

Nemagon was first used by the Standard Fruit Company in 1969 in Central America. In 1975, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that the poison, chemically DBCP, was a possible carcinogen. In 1977, of 114 employees of a plant that made the stuff, 35 had become sterile. In 1979, DBCP was prohibited for nearly any use, and Dow announced a temporary withdrawal of the product. But Standard Fruit threatened to sue for breach of contract. Dow resumed production with the understanding that Standard Fruit would assume the costs of lawsuits arising from continued use of DBCP. Standard Fruit continued using it in Nicaragua. In 1979, Costa Rica banned it, and Standard moved its entire stock to Honduras for continued use.