The Delaware family that was sickened by toxic pesticide during their stay in a luxury condo in the Caribbean last year could be getting $87 million from Terminix as part of a proposed settlement.
Terminix’s parent company has reached a tentative agreement to shell out $87 million to the family, which is in addition to $3 million it’s already paid, which is equal to its insurance deductible, according to an earnings report filed last week by ServiceMaster Global Holdings Inc., The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The family has also received a payment from the company’s insurance as well, but that amount wasn’t disclosed in the filing.
The family of four checked into their condo in St. John, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and soon began feeling ill, due to the effects of an industrial level pesticide Terminix workers had sprayed in the condo below theirs. The chemical is called methyl bromide, and has been banned for indoor residential use since 1984.
Both parents and their teenage sons fell ill shortly after arriving for vacation. Later, they began suffering seizures and were transported back to the mainland, where they were put into medically induced comas. While the mother didn’t get as sick and was discharged soon after the pesticide exposure, the father was ultimately paralyzed and his teenage sons were hospitalized for weeks afterward.
The company didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Inquirer.
In March this year, the Environmental Protection Agency fined Terminix $10 million over the incident. The company said at that time that it has also stopped using the toxic chemical in the U.S. except for as part of a government contract in Baltimore.
Terminix offers $87 million settlement to Delaware family sickened by pesticide [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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