Notes from the front
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MOJO UPDATES
Last-minute justice. In MoJo's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" (June 1989), writers Constance Matthiessen and David Weir described how more than a thousand Costa Rican banana workers had been made sterile by the pesticide DBCP, which was shipped overseas by U.S. companies long after its dangers became known. In 1990 the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the affected workers could sue their employer, Castle & Cooke (Dole), and the makers of DBCP--Dow, Shell, and Occidental Chemical Co.--even though their personal injuries occurred outside the U.S. In 1992 most of the cases were settled, with the companies paying the workers up to twenty thousand dollars each. This year, the Texas legislature changed the state law, making the pursuit of such lawsuits by foreign plaintiffs much more difficult. But before the September 1 deadline fell, attorney Charles Siegel was able to file on behalf of more than fifteen thousand additional sterile workers from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and the Philippines.--Kim Hecht
My enemy, my colleague. On the heels of our profile of Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi ("Hanan Ashrawi," March/April 1993) and well before the newly minted Middle East accord came an unusual cooperative effort between Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. In a report called "Protecting the Gulf of Aqaba: A Regional Environmental Challenge," published last winter by the nonprofit Environmental Law Institute of Washington, D.C., scientists, planners, attorneys, and policymakers from the warring countries and the U.S. presented their joint research on threats to the Gulf, including oil spills, sewage dumping, and unregulated tourism. Miraculously, it was done without a governmental directive; it may even serve as a model of collaboration in what is to come. --Myriam Weisang Misrach
Down and out. Our story on physician self-referral ("Double-Dipping Doctors," May/June 1993) focused on home health-care company T2 Medical, Inc., reporting that doctors pocketed big bucks when they referred their patients to physician-owned T2. But recent stock market reports show that T2's value has plummeted; securities analysts say the company is imploding. Its two top officers have since resigned or been placed on paid administrative leave.--Emily Gest
Trashy living. Similar to the environmentally friendly straw houses we featured in March/April 1993 ("Huff-and-puff-proof homes"), the Center for Resourceful Building Technology in Missoula, Montana, has built a prototype home--of garbage. It's made, among other things, of old newspapers, rubber tires, plastic milk bottles, and mining waste. Residents report feeling "great," and CRBT will happily provide information at (406) 549-7678. --Virginia Carmichael
