A Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Thursday ordered Dole Food Co. to pay $2.5 million in punitive damages for exposing five Nicaraguan banana plantation workers to the pesticide DBCP in the 1970s. In the lawsuit, which began in July, a total of 12 workers said they were left sterile by the pesticide.

Last week, the jury found that six of the workers were substantially harmed by exposure to the pesticide, and ordered Dole and co-defendant, Dow Chemical Co, maker of the pesticide, to pay $3.3 million in compensatory damages.

Four other similar lawsuits with at least 5,000 plantation workers as plaintiffs are pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suits target Dole as well as other growers and manufacturers of the pesticide.