Farmworkers sue over pesticide

Dole Food Co., Chiquita Brands International Inc. and four other companies face new lawsuits by more than 2,000 Central American farmworkers who say they suffered injuries from a pesticide used on banana plantations.

Dole, Chiquita and Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. continued using the pesticide, dibromochloropropane, in Central America after 1979 when the Environmental Protection Agency banned its use in the U.S., a group of Honduran workers said in a complaint filed Monday in state court in Los Angeles. Exposure to the pesticide can cause sterility, according to the complaint, which also names three pesticide suppliers.

Dole, based in Westlake Village, stopped using the pesticide in the early 1980s, a lawyer for the company said in a previous lawsuit. Representatives of the fruit companies either declined to comment or could not be reached.