A contingent of Pennsylvania lawmakers and Parkinson’s disease research and support groups on Wednesday called for the state to move quickly to ban paraquat, a weed killing chemical commonly used by farmers that scientific research links to the incurable brain disease.
On the eve of the opening of what would have been a bellwether US trial over allegations that a widely used weed killer causes Parkinson’s disease, paraquat-maker Syngenta reached a settlement with the retired landscaper who blamed the company for his diagnosis with the incurable brain disease.
A trial with nationwide implications is set to open Wednesday in Philadelphia pitting a retired landscaper suffering from Parkinson’s disease against the multinational agrochemical company Syngenta over accusations that the company’s paraquat weed killing products cause the incurable brain disease.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin sparked news stories around the US last week when he tweeted that the agency had made the “proactive decision to freshly reassess” the safety of the weed killer paraquat, a controversial pesticide widely used by farmers that is linked to Parkinson’s disease.
Mounting scientific evidence links the pesticide paraquat to Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating and deadly brain disease on the rise in the US. Syngenta, the longtime international maker of the weed-killing chemical, knew of this link decades ago. TNL editor-in-chief Carey Gillam talks to lawyers, farmers, researchers and health advocates about paraquat’s devastating toll and the fight to hold Syngenta accountable.
Syngenta is another step closer to potentially putting an end to thousands of lawsuits brought by people blaming the company’s paraquat weed killer for causing Parkinson’s disease.
Decades of secret Syngenta documents revealed by The New Lede were the focus of an ABC News Nightline segment this week, highlighting how the company has worked to hide the risks of its paraquat herbicide.
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Global chemical giant Syngenta has sought to secretly influence scientific research regarding links between its top-selling weed killer and Parkinson’s, internal corporate documents show.
When US regulators issued a 2019 assessment of the widely used farm chemical paraquat, they determined that even though multiple scientific studies linked the chemical to Parkinson’s disease, that work was outweighed by other studies that did not find such links. Overall, the weight of scientific evidence was “insufficient” to prove paraquat causes the brain disease, officials with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared.
When Illinois farmer Ron Niebruegge was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 55, he was certain it must be a mistake. Niebruegge had always been healthy and active, someone who loved horseback riding and taking his wife dancing on weekend nights.