Few Paraquat Regulations Limit Dissecting Crops Prior To Harvest When The Defoliant Becomes Air Borne

The majority of paraquat use is not to kill weed, but to kill the whole plant just before harvest, making it dryer, lighter and cheaper to bring to market

Wednesday, February 9, 2022 - Despite failing to ban paraquat during their August 2021 meeting, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forced farmers who wish to continue using the herbicide and desiccant to follow strict regulations. Paraquat is the most heavily used indiscriminate defoliant by American farmers, used on corn, cotton, and soybeans. Paraquat dangers include its toxicity, killing any plant it comes into contact with within seconds, and also being toxic to human beings. No one disputes that one small sip of paraquat can cause instant death. Thousands of farmers farmworkers ad others have that have filed paraquat lawsuits hope that juries can make the leap from drinking paraquat to ingesting it by breathing it regularly and in low doses.

Paraquat's extreme toxicity has prompted environmental protection groups to seek an EPA ban on the product. Instead, the EPA acknowledges farmers' economic need to use paraquat to control weeds but farmers must now follow even stricter health-protecting parameters. According to No-TillFarmer.com, "The EPA determined that these additional label parameters are necessary to mitigate the risk of human illness and injury. Increased label clarity, limited aerial applications, prohibited pressurized handgun, and backpack sprayer applications, enclosed cabs or respirators for ground boom applications, and other minor regulations." Farmworkers that were forced to use backpacks sprayers and walk each row of crops spraying paraquat have filed Paraquat Parkinson's disease lawsuits alleging inhaling the toxic chemical caused them to develop a permanent and debilitating neurological disorder. These regulations are in addition to those already on the books, the most effective of which are having to train first in the proper handling and use of paraquat, and secondly, being required to pass a test and become licensed to use paraquat. Other paraquat safety measures were enacted in 2016 to mitigate human illness and injury caused by accidental paraquat infestation. These include label changes to emphasize toxicity, paraquat can only be applied and handled by certified applicators, required all handlers to have a paraquat-specific training, and closed system packaging for non-bulk end use containers (< 120 gallons)." Paraquat manufacturers like Syngenta and Chevron must dye paraquat bright blue so that it is not confused with soft drinks and accidentally ingested. A foul odor chemical has been added so that there is no mistake paraquat is in use. Syngenta also added an emetic to the product to induce vomiting should the endemically be swallowed. Paraquat continues to be sprayed by a crop duster airplane for dissection. Paraquat is sprayed by air over an entire crop, fruit and all, to kill the plant and dry it out making it lighter immediately before harvest. Environmentalists think that dissecting a crop does more harm than walking the rows using a hand-held sprayer since the chemical becomes misted and airborne to travel in the direction of the prevailing wind. New EPA regulations prohibit using farmworkers as flaggers to guide planes directly over the crops to be dissected. Paraquat vapor routinely drifts onto nearby communities where adults and children, live, work, and play. Paraquat drift is a cause for concern as lawsuits allege breathing the toxic chemical repeatedly as it hovers in the air caused Parkinson's disease.

Lawyers for Paraquat Lawsuits

Attorneys handling Paraquat Lawsuits for leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma offer free, no-obligation case review for individuals and families who believe they may have grounds to file a paraquat Parkinson's lawsuit. Working on a contingency basis, these attorneys are committed to never charging legal fees unless they win compensation in your paraquat Parkinson's lawsuit. The product liability litigators handling Roundup claims at the Onder Law Firm have a strong track record of success in representing families harmed by dangerous drugs and consumer products.