David H. Murdock
Chairman & CEO
Dole Food Company, Inc.
47 Building
One Dole Drive
Westlake Village, CA 91362

RE: Pay damages to Nicaraguan banana workers!

Dear Mr. Murdock,

I am deeply disturbed that you have refused to pay damages awarded on December 11, 2002, by the Third Civil District Court of Managua, Nicaragua, which found your company guilty of causing injury to Nicaraguan banana workers and to their families. The damages were incurred from use of a chemical known as Dibromo-Chloropropane (DBCP) and sold under the commercial names of Nemagon and Fumazone. The use of this chemical inflicted irreversible damage, both physical and psychological, upon the workers and their families, and has resulted in the death of many workers in recent years. I strongly urge you to respect the ruling of the Nicaraguan court and immediately pay in full the damages awarded to the affected banana workers.

According to scientists, DBCP particularly targets the human endocrine system, which controls all the chemical processes that are critical to the development and functioning of the body's various anatomical systems. In 1977, 35 workers in a DBCP plant in California were found to be sterile. The toxin was immediately outlawed in California, and two years later, in 1979, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the production and usage of DBCP throughout the United States, using as evidence the chemical's poisonous effects on human chromosomes and its ability to persist as a toxin in soil and groundwater. Your company was involved in the massive export and use of this chemical from the 1960s through the 1980s. The EPA also categorizes the pesticide as a “probable human carcinogen.” As a result of these and other findings, the World Health Organization has classified DBCP as "extremely hazardous."

Under international law and in consideration of basic human rights standards, Dole should assume its responsibility for perpetuating the use of a chemical long known to be extremely dangerous to human health. I will join millions of concerned citizens in continuing to closely monitor your actions in this urgent matter.