New California laws seeks to completely ban paraquat, a strong and broadly used weedkiller that has been linked to Parkinson’s illness and different severe well being points.
Meeting Invoice 1963, launched lately by Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), would sundown using paraquat starting in January 2026. The herbicide, which is described by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company as extremely poisonous, is frequently sprayed on almonds, grapes, cotton and different crops within the state.
“Paraquat is banned in additional than 60 nations, together with these with giant agricultural economies, like the UK, China, Brazil and the members of the European Union,” Friedman mentioned throughout a information convention Wednesday. “California ought to comply with their lead.”
California is the nation’s prime person of paraquat, spraying thousands and thousands of kilos yearly, she mentioned. Environmental and public well being teams have mentioned publicity to the product is related to Parkinson’s illness, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, childhood leukemia and different illnesses.
“California must be a frontrunner in eliminating extremely poisonous pesticides like paraquat,” Friedman mentioned. “We have to put public security and environmental sustainability at the beginning, consistent with California values.”
A latest Los Angeles Occasions report documenting issues about paraquat highlighted certainly one of greater than 3,600 lawsuits which have been filed in state and federal courts looking for damages associated to publicity to the product.
Paraquat is manufactured by Syngenta, a Switzerland-based firm that’s owned by the Chinese language authorities. (The chemical is banned in each Switzerland and China.)
Syngenta emphatically rejects claims of hyperlinks between paraquat and Parkinson’s illness and different illnesses.
“Whereas we now have nice sympathy for these affected by the debilitating results of Parkinson’s and different ailments, there isn’t a scientific foundation for this new invoice which fails to account for the thorough assessments undertaken by state and federal regulatory our bodies,” the corporate’s chief communications officer, Saswato Das, wrote in an electronic mail.
“We wish to stress that paraquat is protected when used as directed,” Das mentioned. “In California, paraquat helps farmers management weeds in vital crops, eradicating hazards for discipline work and stopping weeds from taking water and vitamins from crops.”
However latest analysis has discovered that farmworkers and low-income Latino individuals are disproportionately uncovered to paraquat of their communities. Kern County is a “sizzling spot” for paraquat software within the state; greater than 5.3 million kilos had been sprayed there between 2017 and 2021, in keeping with a March report from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
Latest analysis has discovered that farmworkers and low-income Latino individuals are disproportionately uncovered to paraquat of their communities.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)
Almost 180,000 kilos had been sprayed within the Kern County communities of Shafter and Wasco, whose mixed inhabitants of fifty,000 is greater than 80% Latino. Greater than 20% of residents reside beneath the poverty line, the report says.
Three different majority Latino communities — Corcoran, Delano and McFarland — with excessive charges of poverty additionally noticed peak paraquat use on agricultural fields, the report says.
Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook dinner characterised paraquat as “vintage know-how in agriculture” that has been in the marketplace for greater than 60 years.
“Numerous the chemical compounds that we’re nonetheless counting on are archaic, outdated. It’s time for them to go, and paraquat leads that listing,” Cook dinner mentioned in the course of the information convention. “Many of the world has already moved on, together with the components of the world the place initially paraquat was invented.”
Cook dinner mentioned he hopes the laws will “ship a sign to Washington, to the EPA, that they’re falling brief right here.”
The EPA is reviewing paraquat’s approval standing. The California Division of Pesticide Regulation can also be reviewing the product as a part of its administrative renewal course of and ongoing analysis and monitoring of pesticide dangers and impacts, company officers mentioned.
“The division takes severely issues raised relating to potential human well being and environmental impacts related to paraquat use,” spokeswoman Leia Bailey mentioned in an announcement.
Bailey mentioned officers are reviewing greater than 4,000 public feedback and greater than 40 scientific research relating to paraquat that had been submitted to the company final 12 months, together with many requesting that it “reevaluate, droop and/or cancel paraquat product registration.” The outcomes of that overview will likely be publicly launched when full.
Throughout the information convention, Friedman pointed to a 2019 meta-analysis of 13 research that discovered that folks uncovered to paraquat are 1.64 instances extra prone to be recognized with Parkinson’s illness — which she described as a “enormous ratio.”
“I want we had an EPA and an FDA and a California regulatory surroundings that was proactive and that mentioned, ‘Earlier than you should use these chemical compounds, it’s important to show that they’re protected’ — however that’s simply not the way it works,” she mentioned.
Das, of Syngenta, mentioned paraquat has been the topic of greater than 1,200 security research.
“Regardless of many years of investigation and myriad epidemiological and laboratory research, no scientist or physician has ever concluded in a peer-reviewed scientific evaluation that paraquat causes Parkinson’s illness,” he mentioned.
Within the meantime, many Californians who’ve been uncovered to paraquat are hoping for swifter motion.
“We’d prefer to see it banned,” Riverside County resident Tammie Mund lately advised The Occasions. Her husband, Gary Mund, was recognized with Parkinson’s in 1990 after years of spraying the product.
Below EPA tips, solely licensed applicators sporting private protecting tools are allowed to make use of the chemical.
Friedman mentioned there are are alternate options to paraquat, together with integrative pest administration, organic controls, habitat manipulation and different methods which might be “much less damaging to the surroundings.”
She likened her invoice to related laws governing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAs — also called “ceaselessly chemical compounds” — that are prevalent in water, textiles and different supplies and pose identified well being dangers. The state has taken steps to restrict using PFAs however hasn’t carried out sufficient, she mentioned.
“At its core, this invoice is about defending public security,” Friedman mentioned. “It is a very poisonous chemical, it’s not one thing that’s crucial, and we have to do extra to guard our weak neighborhood members — notably our agricultural staff.”
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