Pesticide or contraceptive ?
According to the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), more than 500 men working in banana plantations in the area on Costa Rica's Atlantic coast have become sterile after having worked with DBCP. The pesticide dibromochloropropane (DBCP) - classified by the World Health Organization as extremely hazardous is a soil fumigant used to control nematode worms in a wide variety of crops, including pineapples and bananas. Between 1963 and 1978, more than 5 million kg of DBCP were imported into Costa Rica. It has also been used in Ecuador, Honduras, the Philippines and possibly Colombia and Panama. When DBCP is inhaled or absorbed through the skin, it passes into the bloodstream. With only a limited exposure to DBCP (less than two months) the hormone levels are not severly disrupted but sperm levels are reduced. Irreversible sterility occurs after more than 100 hours of intensive exposure. The World Bank now recommends that DBCP should not be used in farming activities. Many countries, including the United States, have banned this product.
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
1987
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/44653 |
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