
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990                   TAG: 9006200431
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PESTICIDE FATAL TO 11 STOWAWAYS

Eleven Dominican stowaways hiding in the cargo hold of a Puerto Rican ship were killed by a pesticide that was sprayed on the vessel's cargo of cocoa, officials say.

The Puerto Rican government on Tuesday sent condolences to the Dominican Republic over the deaths.

The 11 Dominicans, all of them men, were discovered Monday aboard the SS Humacao, owned by the Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Co., shortly after the vessel left the Dominican port of Rio Haina.

Company officials said the cargo of the ship, headed for Elizabeth, N.J., had been sprayed with the pesticide methyl bromide in compliance with U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations.

In California, the United Farm Workers union has pushed for a ban on the pesticide. Some deaths have been blamed on its use in fumigating homes.

-Associated Press

by CNB