Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
''upon being sprayed by planes, the caustic chemical ingredients will be
inhaled by workers and damage their lungs.''
21
These published statements indicate that union leaders were envi-
sioning aerial dustings of fungicidal powders—a technique temporarily
used in Honduras during the first outbreak of Sigatoka in 1936-1937. Al-
though Dunlap's reports from those years make no mention of adverse
health effects associated with aerial dusting, a 1940 study from Australia
described dusting as ''extremely unpleasant in spite of the use of dust-
hoods and respirators, and with few exceptions, growers condemn this
method of control.''
22
Union references to the ''white plague'' reflected the
widespread belief among workers that exposure to copper sulfate pro-
duced tuberculosis-like symptoms in some individuals. In light of these
antecedents, the union's assumption that the proposed aerial applica-
tions would endanger worker health was hardly surprising. Interestingly,
SITRATERCO publications did not mention workers' concerns about the
health affects of ground spray work, presumably because the fledgling
union was primarily concerned about the prospect that hundreds or even
thousands of jobs would be eliminated if the company switched to aerial
crop dusting.
23
In 1958, United Fruit's Boston-based management, anticipating an-
nual savings of $15 million, ordered its banana-growing divisions to adopt
oil-based fungicides as rapidly as possible. The following year, aerial ap-
plications treated more than 12,100 hectares of bananas. But laboratory
studies conducted that same year indicated that the presence of spray oil
on banana leaves inhibited photosynthesis and resulted in fewer bunches
per hectare and lower fruit weights.
24
Oilspraysalsofailedtocontrolcer-
tain insect pests whose populations had been (incidentally) held in check
by Bordeaux spray. In light of these findings, United Fruit's director of
tropical research wrote to Dr. Hobson in August 1959, urging a return to
Bordeaux spraying. One month later, company o
cials in Boston hastily
orderedthatBordeauxsprayingberestoredonasmanyfarmsaspossible.
25
AU.S.embassyo
cialinTegucigalpa,notingthatoilsprayinghadenabled
the fruit companies to offset rising labor costs by reducing their work-
forces by ''more than ten percent,'' called the news ''extremely serious.''
26
Hoping to hold down labor costs, the Tela Railroad Company eliminated
the manguerero position, forcing individual workers to manage the hose
and spray nozzle.
27
This partial reprieve for Bordeaux applicators was short-lived. After
screening nearly 100 fungicides in 1960, United Fruit scientists reported
that a new product, Dithane M-22 (a dithiocarbamate), provided excel-
