City Starbucks toxic, suit sez

That venti at Starbucks comes with a secret shot of pesticide, a pair of new lawsuits charge.

Two pest control technicians and a former employee say that management of Starbucks locations in Manhattan have routinely used a powerful pesticide not meant to be deployed around food or humans to control filthy conditions.

The suits, filed Tuesday in state and federal court, say that management ignored pleas for years about the use of No-Pest Strips with dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate or DDVP. Photos included in the lawsuits show the strips in food storage areas, near food prep equipment and by air vents.

The strips are supposed to be deployed only in unoccupied buildings, the suit says. The Center for Disease Control warned that DDVP should not be used in kitchens or where food is prepared or served. Exposure to the chemical can result in loss of bladder control, muscle tremors, labored breathing, nausea, anxiety, diarrhea, muscle weakness, convulsions, paralysis or even death, according to the suit.

“The lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs and their attorneys lacks merit. Simply put it is an attempt to incite public fear for their own financial gain,” Starbucks spokesman Reggie Borges said. He added that the company was confident no employees or customers had been put at risk.

An official with the company added that the No-Pest Strips violated company guidelines. When management learned they had been deployed, employees were instructed to remove them. The official did not say when that order was made.

“New Yorkers deserve to know what they are putting in their bodies and we call upon Starbucks to explain, as we allege in the complaint, its failure to take appropriate care for its customers’ well-being,” said attorney Doug Wigdor, who filed a class action on behalf of Starbucks customers in Manhattan.

The federal lawsuit alleges that Starbucks abrubtly canceled a longstanding contract in Feb. 2018 with AVP Termite & Pest Control of New York after two exterminators, Paul D’Auria and Jill Shwiner, repeatedly warned the coffee giant about the toxic strips. Store manager Rafael Fox, who also filed the suit, says he was fired around the same after he also made repeated warnings about the danger.

“Rather than responding to our clients’ urgent complaints, Starbucks instead chose to methodically bury them. In filing this lawsuit, Mr. Fox, Mr. D’Auria and Ms. Shwiner are speaking out for the protection of tens of thousands of hardworking New Yorkers who would never otherwise have imagined what’s in the air around them when they set foot into Starbucks stores in Manhattan,” attorney Ariel Graff said.

Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.