Paraquat Studies show links to Parkinson’s disease

Recent studies in both European counties and in America have many asking if this widely used chemical used to kill weeds is toxic and linked to Parkinson’s disease.

Paraquat Lawsuit Update – March 15, 2022. A federal judge in Illinois has allowed hundreds of farm and agricultural workers to proceed with their paraquat injury claims against maker Syngenta and Chevron USA. This is a win for those suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and means more victims can join the MDL. So far there are nearly 600 cases pending in court.

Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel, who is working on the MDL (multidistrict litigation), denied both Syngenta and Chevron’s motions to dismiss claims for negligence, product liability, breach of implied warranty and violation of several states’ consumer protection laws.

A joint statement from the lead plaintiff’s states:

“This is a critical milestone for the thousands of farmers and agricultural workers” who were exposed to paraquat “and now have a debilitating disease for which there is no cure.”

The case is In re Paraquat Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois, No. 21-md-03004.

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Paraquat was first manufactured, marketed and sold by Imperial Chemical Industries in early 1962 under the trade name Gramoxone. It has been a widely used herbicidal weed killer on farms and other agricultural regions.

Many may recall that in the 1970’s the U.S. Government sent paraquat to authorities in Mexico to kill illegal cannabis (marijuana) growing operations.  

Currently paraquat is not allowed to be sold in the European Union, and loosely restricted in the United States. It’s widely used in Asia and many third world countries.

Today paraquat is contained and sold in various brand name products that include:

• Blanco, manufactured by United Phosphorous
• Bonedry
• Bonfire Herbicide, Altitude Crop Innovations, LLC
• Cyclone
• CycloneStar
• Devour, Innvictis Crop Care, LLC
• Firestorm, Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC
• Helmquat
• Gramoxone, Syngenta
• Para-SHOT, Sharda USA LLC
• Paraquat
• Paraquat 43.2% SL (RedEagle)
• Paraquat Concentrate (Solera)
• Parazone, AMVAC® Chemical Corporation
• Purgatory 3 SL
• Quik-Quat, Drexel Chemical Company 
• Willowood Paraquat 3SL

These studies, source links provided at the bottom of this article, indicates that Paraquat kills cells via a process called oxidative stress, however it is currently unknown how this process happens.

The studies examined genes involved in part of the mechanism paraquat uses to produce oxidants; it’s these oxidants that cause stress in cells.  The researchers focused on a region of the brain known as the substantia nigra pars compacta because this region may be more at risk for oxidative stress.

“Certain people with genetic mutations could have high levels of this gene. They would be very susceptible to paraquat poisoning while working on a farm, for example” quoted Navdeep Chandel, PhD.  

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-10-technique-herbicide-link-parkinson-disease.html

“We thought it was a metabolic protein that paraquat was activating to generate oxidants,” Chandel said. “So we localized our work to the 3,000 genes that encode for metabolic proteins, rather than the 18,000 to 20,000 genes human cells have in total.”

Paraquat risks not only for farms and field workers, but also home owners.

Research done in 2009 by the  American Journal of Epidemiology pointed out that any exposure to paraquat within 1,600 feet of a home resulted in a greater risk of developing Parkinson’s disease at 75%.

In June 2001, the Environmental Health Perspectives looked into whether pesticides that cause mitochondrial dysfunction or oxidative stress are associated with PD or clinical features of parkinsonism in humans.

Their conclusions stated: “PD was positively associated with two groups of pesticides defined by mechanisms implicated experimentally—those that impair mitochondrial function and those that increase oxidative stress—supporting a role for these mechanisms in PD pathophysiology.”

_{Source: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1002839#t1}

Sierra Club writes about paraquat in the Central Valley California. A must read if you have Parkinson’s Disease.

https://vault.sierraclub.org/sierra/201201/parkinsons-pesticides.aspx?

Is toxic spray Paraquat the new RoundUp?

Since learning about the problems with this toxic chemical paraquat, the Schmidt National Law Group is currently investigating and hoping to bring to light this problem for all farmers, agricultural workers, field maintenance workers and others who may have had exposure to this chemical.   Learn more about the Paraquat Lawsuit.

Currently there is no class action lawsuit for paraquat, but very much like Monsanto’s RoundUp cancer lawsuit, we are closely watching these developing studies.

Sources:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20094060/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nchembio.2499

_{Post updated March 15, 2022}