"At first we had thought it could be the solvent that people were smelling, but approximately 16 to 17 samples were taken outside of the plant for chlorpyrifos and 15 of them turned up positive in fairly high quantities." - Roger Theodoredis, Chiquita executive assigned to investigate the Polymer Plastipak problems; Smokestack emits toxins; 'We cry for our children'
A Chiquita subsidiary is exposing more than 500 men, women and children of Barrio Paris to a toxic chemical that the company knows is spewing from a San Jose factory smokestack in high quantities, internal company records reveal.Chiquita officials in Cincinnati have been aware of the problem for several months, but their efforts to solve it have been unsuccessful, according to company sources and internal voice-mail messages provided the Enquirer by a high-level company source.
The plant manufactures plastic bags impregnated with a pesticide called chlorpyrifos. The bags are used to cover bananas ripening on plants to protect them from insects. Community leaders and neighbors in Barrio Paris have complained to the national health ministry that fumes have caused residents - including children and pregnant women - to suffer chronic respiratory problems, blistered skin and other serious ailments.
The U.S. EPA classifies chlorpyrifos as a highly-toxic pesticide that is dangerous to humans if inhaled or if it comes into contact with skin for a protracted period of time. According to the EPA, universities and chemical manufacturers, chlorpyrifos can cause delayed nerve damage, multiple sclerosis, loss of use of limbs, lung congestion, paralysis, convulsions, dizziness, mental disorders, blurred vision, chest pain, loss of reflexes and death.
For years plant officials of the Chiquita subsidiary, Polymer Plastipak, have denied those claims to Costa Rican health officials, according to more than a dozen letters from company officials and lawyers sent to the Ministry of Health since 1992. The company has conceded only that the plant emits a "bad odor."
Despite company claims that the fumes are harmless, a 1997 Costa Rican national laboratory report asserted that the company repeatedly failed to conduct government-mandated air tests to determine whether the plant is discharging the pesticide into the atmosphere and causing health problems for nearby residents.
The report, translated for the Enquirer, also stated that the company's use of chlorpyrifos results in "high risk for ... health of the neighbors."
"It is proven that extended exposure to this pesticide (especially children and pregnant women)produces health problems to people," the report said.
The March 20, 1997, report was prepared by Defensoria de Los Habitantes, a Costa Rican congressional agency created to ensure that other government departments protect citizens on health, environmental, and other issues.
Testing at the plant, conducted by Chiquita after the Enquirer began questioning company officials about the problem, revealed high quantities of chlorpyrifos were being spewed into the air through the plant's smokestack. The pesticide also is being released inside the plant and into the atmosphere where the bags are cut and separated, the Enquirer has learned.
In an Oct. 3, 1997 voice-mail message to Robert Olson, Chiquita's chief counsel in Cincinnati, Roger Theodoredis, a company executive in Cincinnati assigned to investigate the Polymer problems, confirmed that Polymer Plastipak was emitting chlorpyrifos into the atmosphere in "high quantities."
"At first we had thought it could be the solvent that people were smelling, but approximately 16 to 17 samples were taken outside of the plant for chlorpyrifos and 15 of them turned up positive in fairly high quantities," Mr. Theodoredis said in the message.
"I wanted to alert you to that. There appear to be two sources of chlorpyrifos getting out into the atmosphere. One is the smokestack which is part of the process. That is when the bags are formed in the extrusion process; heated exhaust air goes up the stack and apparently there is chlorpyrifos going up the stack.
"The second, unexpected source of chlorpyrifos is taking place in another room of the factory in which the bags are cut. That cutting of the bags is causing chlorpyrifos to be emitted," he added.
A tape recording of the voice-mail message was provided to the Enquirer by a company source who asked not to be identified because of fear of retribution. In the message, Mr. Theodoredis also told Mr. Olson of the long-standing problems between Polymer Plastipak and the Costa Rican Ministry of Health over the toxic fumes issue.
"There is a history of contention between the plant and the Ministry of Health. On August 8th, for example, the Ministry of Health shut down the Polymer (Plastipak) plant for about 12 hours due to the smell issue. Currently the plant is working under a temporary suspension of that shutdown order."
Chiquita denied to the Enquirer that there is any threat to nearby residents. In a statement issued through its lawyers, Chiquita made no reference to any concerns about chlorpyrifos levels it or the government may have had about Polymer:
"Investigation by Chiquita and independent consultants (hired by the company) confirms that the Plastipak plant does not pose a threat to the surrounding community. Any concentrations of chlorpyrifos measured at the surrounding residences fall well within the Average Acceptable Ambient Air Concentrations used in the United States."
Chiquita did not respond to Enquirer requests to provide the newspaper with copies of its complete Polymer test results.
Additionally, the letter said: "Any concentrations of pesticides within the plant pose no health threat to workers."
Chiquita officials refused to provide the Enquirer with any written test results, reports or findings of its independent consultants who performed the tests on the plant's emissions.
And according to Defensoria and Health Ministry officials, neither Chiquita nor its Plastipak company executives have submitted the written findings of its consultants' plant emission testings to them for review.
Residents of Barrio Paris described for the Enquirer health problems they attribute to the Polymer Plastipak plant and their fears for their children's health.
"We have a very huge problem here," Blanca Brenes Morales, 62, president of the Barrio Paris Neighborhood Association, said through a translator. "They (Polymer) use a chemical that goes right up into the air and we breathe it. All of us knew when we moved here that we would live in an industrial area, but no one, not even the government, knew or agreed that they could poison us with their chemicals."
Ms. Brenes said that whenever the fumes become heavy in the air, she calls Polymer plant officials.
"They always tell me they are just changing their filters," she said.
She said most of her fears center around the children in the neighborhood. "We don't really know how this poison will affect us in the future. We cry for our children."
Ms. Brenes said she and many other residents of Barrio Paris are too poor to leave their homes and wouldn't be able to find comparable, affordable housing elsewhere.
Criticisms in Defensoria's report were not only aimed only at Polymer Plastipak.
Defensoria repeatedly criticized offices of the Costa Rican government's own Health Ministry for failing to conduct needed blood tests of the Barrio Paris residents to monitor the harmful effects of the chlorpyrifos.
In 1993 the Health Ministry did take blood samples from the residents after repeated complaints that fumes from the Polymer Plastipak plant were making people ill. But necessary follow-up tests to confirm the levels of pesticide in the residents' bloodstreams never were taken because health ministry officials cited a lack of manpower, according to the Defensoria report.
Polymer Plastipak officials in Costa Rica declined requests for interviews from Enquirer reporters.
Since the 12-hour shutdown in August, Polymer and Chiquita officials have failed to provide the Health Ministry any documented proof of "substantive changes to either the mixture or its filtration system that would prevent further harm to the company's own workers or the residents who live near there," said Rodrigo Alberto Carazo, a director in Defensoria.
Mr. Carazo said that Polymer officials have for years not only denied toxic fumes were affecting workers at the plant or nearby residents, but also that the "non-harmful smell problem had not been contained because of ongoing problems with a plant filtration system."
"That has been their excuse for many, many years," said Mr. Carazo. "We've been receiving letters like that since at least 1993 or 1994."
Plastipak's letters hold little sway with Gerardo Campos Cartin, 48, who cites his own doctor's findings that he has been contaminated by chlorpyrifos. Chiquita's plant in Barrio Paris is the only company in that section of the city using chlorpyrifos, according to Health Ministry records.
Walking out to a children's playground located directly behind the Polymer plant, Mr. Campos talked of a respiratory disease he said his doctor has linked to the plant's poisonous fumes.
"It is so bad that many times I cannot breathe without help (from drugs or a respirator)", Mr. Campos said through a translator. "When the factory is running and the smokestack belches out those fumes, I must run inside my house and hide under my bed. If I smell (the fumes) at all I begin choking. My skin also turns red with rashes and I become so sick I sometimes want to die."
But Mr. Campos said his greatest fear is for Barrio Paris' children.
"Look at this playground right here by the plant," he said, pointing to the swing set, teeter-totter, climbing bars and small basketball court. "All the children play here. They have no place else to go."
In another development, the Enquirer also has learned from company sources that Chiquita plans to sell its Polymer operations. When asked through its attorneys about the plans, Chiquita officials did not respond.
In internal company voice-mail messages obtained by the Enquirer from a high-level company source, several Chiquita executives and lawyers discuss plans to sell its Polymer operations, including the Plastipak plant in Costa Rica.
"We don't really know how this poison will affect us in the future." - Blanca Brenes Morales, 62
(Copyright 1998)
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