Take Greddy Mauricio Valerin Bustos, a worker on Plantation 96, a farm in Costa Rica owned by Chiquita's subsidiary, the Chiriqui Land Company.
On the morning of Nov. 13, 1997, the 18-year-old had been working since 5 a.m. collecting "piola," the thin rope used to support the banana plants. At about 7:30 a.m., according to the police, he was found writhing on the ground, choking and vomiting up a white substance. He was dead by 9:17 a.m.
Police investigators interviewed one of the co-workers who brought his body to the medical clinic.
"He was working in an area called Los 50s, that had been sprayed with the agrochemical Counter (the brand name for the pesticide terbufos, an organ-ophosphate) three days ago," Miguel Herra Miranda told police, according to a translation of the investigation report. "He (Mr. Valerin) didn't have any experience in this kind of job and he wasn't using any protective gear like gloves and mask either."
The autopsy report, obtained by the Enquirer, determined that Mr. Valerin died from intoxication from organophosphates, which caused internal bleeding and brain damage.
Chiquita, in a statement through its lawyers, said the company acknowledged that the Costa Rican government coroner declared the cause of death to be organophosphate poisoning. The company also stated it operated the farm safely and the death was "an isolated incident."
"Although Chiquita has attempted to understand the details surrounding Mr. Valerin's collapse, Chiquita is unable to explain (and will not speculate) how Mr. Valerin might have died," Chiquita stated.
Under an agreement with the New York-based environmental group the Rainforest Alliance, Plantation 96 is certified under the "Better Banana" program to meet certain environmental and worker safety guidelines. But often problems can be hard to detect because the program requires inspectors visit plantations only once a year, with possible spot checks afterward, said Eric Holst, New York coordinator of the "Better Banana" program.
"That's one of the weaknesses of certification. You can't be there every day," Mr. Holst said.
As a rule, Chiquita and its subsidiaries do not provide protective gear for workers unless those workers are directly involved in the application or storage of pesticides. The vast majority receive no protective clothing, though they are exposed to pesticides in their work on the plantations.
Carl Smith, publications director and an expert on pesticide exports at the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE) in Los Angeles, said the use of many pesticides like terbufos are legal in the United States but only under strict safety regulations. When these chemicals are exported to Central America, where worker safety and environmental laws are less stringent, the result can be dangerous for the workers and the environment.
"When you look at conditions of use in areas like Central America, there are a lot of compounds that are awful dangerous," he said. "It's one thing if a guy is wearing a full moon suit with a respirator and gloves. It's another thing if teenagers are walking around the stuff with no shirt."
Nearby Plantation 96 is Plantation O3, a farm that has an exclusive contract to sell bananas to Chiquita. Like other farms in the area, the farm, owned by Proyecto Agroindustrial de Sixaola, S.A, (PAIS), ships bananas with Chiquita labels and in Chiquita boxes. The plantation grows bananas only for Chiquita and to contractual specifications set by Chiquita.
In a statement issued through its attorneys, Chiquita said it was not responsible for anything that happened on the farm, but said it does exert pressure in its contracts to monitor safety and environmental standards.
"Chiquita - although it is not in any way required to do so - is insisting that independent growers adopt Chiquita's own strict environmental standards and practices if they want to renew contractual relations with the company," the company stated.
On the farm, Enquirer reporters saw a work team applying terbufos, a nematicide classified as extremely hazardous to humans by the World Health Organization. Terbufos is under "restricted use" in the United States by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Nematicides are pesticides used to kill nematodes, tiny worm parasites that can destroy a crop's roots. According to EPA guidelines, once the pesticide is put on the ground, no one should be allowed in the area for at least 24 hours unless wearing protective clothing and a respirator.
Children playing
But with the air thick with the heavy smell of pesticides, the Enquirer team observed children from the nearby village playing in the area amid open bags of terbufos and plants just treated with the pesticide. No warning signs were posted and no workers tried to stop the children from playing in the area or passing through. The Enquirer saw signs with a warning in Spanish, "DANGER, nematicide application in this area," leaning against the wall of a packing plant about a mile away.
When asked about Plantation 03, and PAIS, Chiquita issued a statement through its attorneys declaring "The Pais farm is owned and operated by a Costa Rican quasi-governmental institution. Chiquita does not own or operate the farm. What the Enquirer says it observed at Pais should not have happened."
The company stated that it has since renegotiated its contract with the owners of PAIS and requires the company to adhere to Chiquita standard operating procedures regarding environmental safety.
Enquirer reporters also observed pesticide workers at Finca O3 taking off their masks because of the stifling heat. Mr. Smith of FASE said the protective clothing is a fundamental problem in tropical agricultural, which neither "Better Banana" nor any other program has solved.
He said the limited safety equipment that has been created for these materials is often heavy rubber, suitable for northern, colder climates. In the tropics, a mask, rubber gloves, a rubber apron, rubber boots, long pants and a sweatshirt make for incredibly uncomfortable work days on a sweltering plantation. Such heavy clothing itself could be unsafe because of the danger of heat exhaustion, Mr. Smith said.
"The equipment doesn't even exist that is suitable for tropical climates," he said.
Even workers who wear protective clothing properly are not safe, workers told the Enquirer. On Cocobola plantation, owned by one of Chiquita's Costa Rican subsidiaries - Compania Bananera Atlantica Ltda. (COBAL) - in northeast Costa Rica, pesticide worker Emilio Colero, 41, told Enquirer reporters that he was concerned about his health.
He was issued protective clothing when he applied the ground pesticides. But he said through a translator that "when I bend over, some of the herbicide liquid gets on my neck. I get a rash every time until I take a shower."
Mr. Colero said his wife is constantly concerned about him, but he works in pesticides because the pay is better than other field jobs. He makes 680 Costa Rican colones per hectare, and sprays about three or four hectares a day. That salary is about $15 a day.
Through its attorneys, the company issued a written statement that Chiquita strictly adheres to safety recommendations of the pesticides that it uses. The company said also that it has reduced its use of nematicides like terbufos by more than 50 percent since 1995, "demonstrating its continuing commitment to minimizing the environmental impact of its farming operations."
New chemicals applied
Another problem is at Chiquita packing plants and those of affiliates, where the bananas are brought to be boxed before shipment. In these processing centers, the bananas are washed of chemicals that have been applied in the fields.
After this washing process, the bananas then are sprayed with new chemicals, either thiabendazole or imazalil or both, to keep the fruit from rotting. As Chiquita boxes state clearly, "Thiabendazole and - or Imazalil applied to fruit to preserve quality in transit."
Workers then pick up these pesticide-covered bananas, usually withtheir bare hands, and place them in boxes for shipment. Scientists, union officials and workers told reporters of rashes on the arms of women in the packing houses.
Chemical runoff from washed bananas and newly applied pesticides also flows into water passing through plant operations and back into irrigation canals. Those canals then flow into nearby rivers.
Chiquita stated through its attorneys that it has conducted comprehensive tests of water running off its farms and "Chiquita never has detected a level of pesticides that posed any threat to the environment or people."
The Enquirer visited packing plants on certified plantations of Chiquita's subsidiaries in Costa Rica. Most did not have containment or treatment systems to remove chemicals from the water supply. Almost none of the workers had gloves.
Thiabendazole is a fungicide that the EPA has determined is harmful to fish. According to the Pesticide Users' Health and Safety Handbook, government laboratory studies have also pointed to the fungicide as a possible cause of anemia and a possible cancer-causing agent in mammals.
Imazalil is classified as a moderately toxic compound by the Extensions Toxicology Network, a cooperative information group on pesticides set up by Cornell University and other universities and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to a Network document, lab animals fed imazalil have suffered symptoms including "muscle incoordination, reduced arterial tension, tremors, and vomiting."
Professor Luisa Castillo, who heads Costa Rica's National University Pesticide Program, said the two chemicals are a major concern for environmental scientists in Costa Rica. Scientists in her program have conducted studies of rivers in national parks downstream from banana plantations, some of which were operated by Chiquita.
"We have found high levels of imazalil and thiabendazole in the water, and we have also found toxicity (by those two pesticides) toward aquatic organisms," Ms. Castillo said.
Her program's studies have not pinpointed the specific source of this pollution.
She said one of the key components of any sincere attempt to improve the environment would be to stop those chemicals from getting into the water supply.
"I would immediately put water treatment plants in the packing plants and not allow that water to flow into the natural courses of water because it is quite polluted," Ms. Castillo said.
In a statement issued through its lawyers, Chiquita stated that it has spent at least $3.3 million installing special chambers at its packing plants to apply thiabendazole or imazalil to the bananas, reducing the amount of these pesticides used and the amount to which workers are exposed. The company stated that it has installed these chambers on a number of its farms.
(Copyright 1998)
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