US$4
million for Benlate eye victim
A Miami jury, in the case of Castillo v. DuPont, has awarded US$4 million to
a child whose mother was exposed in pregnancy to the fungicide Benlate,
containing the active ingredient benomyl. The child was born without eyes.
During the three-week trial, which was contested by the
manufacturers DuPont, the members of the jury heard evidence of exposure to
Benlate. They also heard evidence from Dr Vyvyan Howard, Lecturer in
Foetal and Infant Pathology, University of Liverpool, on the likely adverse
effects on the foetus of such exposure.
DuPont has appealed against the verdict, although this may
take some time to be heard. Benlate continues to be used both in the UK and the
US as a fungicide. Leigh Day & Co, solicitors in London, act for a number of
UK families of children born without eyes, and say that the next case to be
heard in the US will be that of Andrew Bourne from Essex.
Leigh Day & Co., London, Press release, 10 June 1996.
Legal aid
granted
Gary Coomber, a former sheep farmer from Kent, has received legal aid to
begin proceedings against sheep dip manufacturers. He is seeking damages for
myocarditis, a heart condition, that is allegedly linked with his exposure to
organophosphate sheep dip.
Farmers Weekly, 19 July 1996.
Jury
awards herbicide victim US$1.2 million
A Rhode Island jury has awarded US$1.2 million to
plaintiff Terry DiPetrillo in his suit against Dow Chemical Co. Phil Weinstein,
DiPetrillo's lawyer, said that the verdict is the first against the herbicide
2,4,5-T, a component of Agent Orange which was used in the Vietnam War.
Mr DiPetrillo was employed by the Narragansett Electric
Company to use 2,4,5-T to clear foliage from the power company's right-of-way.
He later developed multiple myeloma. After a bone marrow transplant, his cancer
is in remission.
Many employees of utility and railway companies around the
world are exposed to the defoliants 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. Studies of such workers
in the US, Scandinavia, Italy, Australia and New Zealand have found elevated
levels of cancer. (See also page 30 Agent Orange update for more information on
health effects.)
JSI Center for Environmental Health Studies, Boston, US, May 1996.
First
UK OP claim set for 1997
In February 1997, the first UK personal injury
claim involving an organophosphate (OP) insecticide will be heard at the High
Court in London. The case, Hill v. Tomkins (Ltd.), may establish that chronic
ill-effects, including delayed neurological impairment, occurred as a result of
occupational exposure to the OP pirimiphos-methyl, used in a grain store to
control insect pests. Dr Goran Jamal, a consultant neurologist, who is currently
carrying out neurophysiological tests on sheep farmers exposed to OPs, will be
giving evidence at the proceedings.
Alan Care, Leigh Day & Co., London, August 1996.
Attempted
murder linked to OPs exposure
The Court of Appeal, in an unusual move, recently
granted a re-trial to a 60-year old farmer from Warninglid, West Sussex
(England) because exposure to an organophosphate (OP) sheep dip may have
affected the state of his mind. He had been convicted of attempted murder and
sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment.
Robert Billings, a man with no history of similar violence,
was alleged to have fired a shotgun whilst in a drunken rage at a labourer who
worked on his farm. The day before the shooting Mr Billings had been using OP
sheep dip. New evidence from Dr Robert Davis, a psychiatrist from Taunton, cast
doubt on the necessary motive to find a conviction. Dr Davis gave new evidence
that exposure to OP pesticides could produce a mood swing, and that the
combination of alcohol and pesticide exposure could have affected the farmer's
normal behaviour. Mr Billings remains in custody until a re-trial can be
arranged when a new jury will consider the new evidence.
Guardian, 13 July 1996.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 33, September 1996,
page 8]