In the ’70s and ’80s, the banana companies Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita used a carcinogenic pesticide, Nemagon, to protect their crops in Nicaragua. Today, the men and women who worked on those plantations suffer from incurable illnesses...Nemagon...was developed...by Dow Chemical Co. and Shell Chemicals...In December 2002...a national tribunal [in Nicaragua] sentenced the American multinationals Shell, Dole and Dow to pay $489 million in damages and interest to 450 workers affected by Nemagon. The companies, however...deem the Nicaraguan court system to be corrupt, and therefore incapable of determining a fair sentence. According to Freya Maneki, director of corporate communications for Dole, no study has proved that workers have suffered health problems after having been exposed to Nemagon...Scot Wheeler, spokesman for Dow, says that his company did its share by sticking warning labels on the vats of Nemagon, encouraging workers to read them and asking that employers provide their workers with the necessary safety equipment...[also refers to Occidental]