A report by Peter Williams The DBCP File
In 1977, an unusual order was processed at an agrochemical factory in East Anglia. It was for a pesticide that was subsequently exported to the West Indies.
The pesticide was DBCP. The use of DBCP is now banned throughout the United States, because it causes sterility, and may cause cancer, in those who manufacture it or who use it.
The implications of this single order led the Open Secret team from Suffolk to the United States and on to Mexico. PETER WILLIAMS talks to Mexican farmers who still use DBCP and to the president of the Los Angeles company that still manufactures it - solely for export. He examines the role of the chemical giants, Dow and Shell, in the story of this pesticide and meets the group of men who, in discovering they were sterile in 1977, became the first entry in The DBCP File.
ResearchDAVID DUGAN
Film editorjohn STOTHART
Producer CHRISTOPHER SYKES