By the 1990s, tens of thousands of plantation workers in these countries had allegedly suffered adverse reproductive effects from DBCP use. The story continued with contentious legal claims for compensation, contamination of drinking water and industry attempts to prevent a Swedish documentary on the issue from being screened. [2]. According to the website "Bananas" during the 1970s, the pesticide DBCP Dibromochloropropane) was used extensively on banana plantations all over the world. DBCP had many brand names, such as Nemagon and Fumazone. DBCP was also  used to protect many different crops: vegetables, nuts, fruits, beans and cotton. The target pest was nematodes, tiny worms living in the soil, feeding on the roots. At the Occidental Chemical Company in Lathrop the operators had formulated more than 200 pesticides, one main task was mixing up batches of DBCP (1,2dibromo-3-chloropropane) that were brought over from the manufacturing reactors. The workers added solvents and emulsifiers to the dried DBCP, transforming it into an amber liquid. It was then measured into cans and stacked in the warehouse for shipment. In the fields, the pesticide was either pumped directly into the ground, or sprayed into the air with irrigation guns. In the US, in 1977,  employees who had handled DBCP at the Occidental Chemical plant in California were found to be sterile.

Within months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had suspended most uses of the chemical. In 1983,  Sacramento attorney Duane Miller won a $4.9 million judgement against Dow on behalf of six of the Occidental plant workers. Two years later, the EPA permanently banned the use of DBCP in the United States. It has been used in Hawai's pineapple plantations and in other areas. In fact,  DBCP  had still a great future outside the USA. In March 1990, a Texas court announced they would allow cases with a foreign location: under the ATCA legislation it seemed possible to override the legal doctrine called “forum non conveniens”, which said lawsuits should be heard in the countries where the damage occurred.