Plaintiffs say the spray, used to combat medflies, was altered and caused disorders in humans.
By BRADY DENNIS
Published May 13, 2003
TAMPA - More than 100 people are suing the company that manufactured the malathion sprayed throughout west central Florida in 1997 and 1998 to combat Mediterranean fruit flies.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Hillsborough Circuit Court, alleges that Cheminova Inc., a Wayne, N.J., company, knowingly sold the state chemically altered batches of malathion that were sprayed on the ground and from the air in 1997 and 1998.
The suit, which lists 135 plaintiffs, claims that the chemical was sprayed knowingly on heavily residential areas and that it caused numerous health problems, such as skin and eye irritation, respiratory problems, seizures and neurological disorders.
It mainly affected elderly people and children, according to the suit, as well as causing property damage to cars and homes.
Monday's suit closely resembles one filed in May 1999 by two Southwest Florida families.
In that suit, as in Monday's, the plaintiffs contended that Cheminova violated its own product label, which says that malathion should not be stored above 77 degrees.
Before shipping its product to Florida to fight the medfly, the plaintiffs said, Cheminova stored its product in warehouses in Texas and Georgia in summer heat that reached 115 degrees. High heat breaks down malathion into isomalathion, which the plaintiffs argued is more toxic to humans.
At the time, Cheminova said it had documented test results to show that all the product delivered to Florida was well within government specifications. Tests were conducted on each shipment, both before it left the warehouses in Georgia and Texas, and after delivery in Florida, the company said.
In June 2001, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun rejected the 1999 suit, indicating that the plaintiffs lacked the common issues required for a class action. He wrote that proposed class was "ill-defined" and "unmanageable" and that class certification would not be proper.
Still, he stated that his recommendation should not be read as a comment on the merits of the plaintiffs' case. Several plaintiffs in that original suit are plaintiffs in the suit filed Monday.
In March 2002, a land surveyor also filed suit in U.S. District Court Friday against Cheminova. He claimed he became sick, even went into seizures and a coma, after being sprayed from a plane as he surveyed land in Tampa in 1997.
The status of that case was not immediately available Monday.
