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Sweden started ringing the alarm bell more than 20 years ago, calling for a ban on the weedkilling chemical paraquat in 2004. One by one, dozens of other countries did the same as evidence of paraquat risks to human health mounted. Even the Chinese government, which owns the longtime paraquat maker Syngenta, halted domestic use of the pesticide a decade ago after conducting its own studies on paraquat safety and finding troubling results.
In the US, two states – Vermont and California – have recently also banned paraquat, citing risks that include an association between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease shown in years of scientific research. And California regulators announced in August that paraquat makers voluntarily agreed to stop selling the chemical after the state identified health concerns in connection with its use in new research. Several federal lawmakers have pushed for a nationwide ban.
US officials said this week they are expanding a scientific review of the widely used weed killer glyphosate, a chemical popular in agriculture but also linked for years to cancer and other health problems.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is joining with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in an interagency memorandum of understanding to “strengthen scientific coordination” and “expand the evidence” for the EPA’s ongoing registration review of glyphosate. Last month, the EPA released its open literature search document for glyphosate studies and set a 30-day public comment period, which expires Thursday.
Federal law “requires us to reexamine registered pesticides on a recurring cycle against the best available science, and that is exactly what we are doing with glyphosate,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. “This agreement … gives our scientists access to research capacity at HHS that addresses potential gaps in the record.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement that the move advances the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda.
“We are bringing the scientific resources of HHS to the table to answer unresolved questions, strengthen the evidence, and give EPA the data it needs to conduct a rigorous review,” Kennedy said in the statement. “We will ask the hard questions, demand sound science, and follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
Syngenta’s secrets – What the company didn’t tell the EPA about its “blockbuster” paraquat pesticide
Sweden started ringing the alarm bell more than 40 years ago, banning the weed killing chemical paraquat in 1983. One by one, other countries around the world did the same as evidence of paraquat risks to human health mounted. Even the Chinese government, which owns the longtime paraquat maker Syngenta, halted use of the pesticide a decade ago after conducting its own studies on paraquat safety and finding troubling results.
In the US, Vermont also recently banned paraquat, with lawmakers there citing risks that include an association between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease shown in years of scientific research. And California regulators announced paraquat makers voluntarily agreed to stop selling the chemical after the state identified health concerns in new research. Several federal lawmakers have pushed for a nationwide ban.
Yet amid the global cloud of concern, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to greenlight paraquat use on millions of acres, and has downplayed the significance of science linking paraquat to Parkinson’s, an incurable brain disease. The agency said in June it would hold a roundtable over the summer to re-examine the “safety challenges” associated with paraquat. But no such event was held or has been scheduled.
Now, clues to how and why the US remains one of the world’s last large markets for widespread paraquat use are coming to light through troves of internal Syngenta records recently revealed through litigation.