Hundreds of people who worked at an agricultural chemical plant in the city of Paulinia, Brazil filed a class-action lawsuit alleging health problems caused by exposure to chemicals at the plant. The plant produced crop protection products from 1977 to 2002. Shell originally owned the plant but sold it to American Cyanamid in 1995, which was acquired by German chemical company BASF in in 2000. It is alleged that toxic chemical contamination caused workers at the plant and people who live near it to develop health problems including prostate cancer, short-term memory loss, and thyroid gland problems. In April 2013, it was announced that Shell and BASF settled the lawsuit for $187 million (370.8 million reais). The settlement includes damages paid to the more than 1,000 plaintiffs in the lawsuit and funding for the construction of a local maternity hospital and two medical centers focused on workplace health and safety. See related Royal Dutch Shell instance, “Brazil Chemical Facility Contamination”