Glyphosate and Paraquat Are Two Of The World's Most Deadly Defoliants

As glyphosate is phased out, paraquat could take its place

Tuesday, January 11, 2022 - Glyphosate and Paraquat are two of the most controversial chemical herbicides on the planet today. Between the two of them, billions of gallons of the defoliants, and others, are sprayed on most of the world's crops. Glyphosate, the active ingredient used by the former Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, is estimated to be a 13 billion dollars per year market, far larger than the market for paraquat which is around $100 million per year. The reason for the difference in users could be because of the stringent regulations the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has placed on purchasing and using the chemical. Paraquat is not for sale at retail outlets, unlike glyphosate which can be bought from a retailer like Home Depot or Walmart without being questioned. A person must be trained and carry a license to buy and spray paraquat and the license is non-transferable. The market may start to shrink, however, as more and more countries, states, and municipalities ban using the weed killer. Another reason for a future decline in glyphosate use is that weeds are growing resistant to glyphosate. Farmers are turning to use paraquat as a glyphosate replacement. Spraying paraquat on crops must be done with a hand-held sprayer since paraquat kills plants indiscriminately. On the other hand, glyphosate could be sprayed by a low-flying plane since the crops it was being sprayed on were genetically modified (GMO) to be resistant to the defoliant. One thing the two chemicals have in common is that they are both listed as being deadly chemicals that may cause neurological diseases in farmers, farmworkers, and people who work, live, and play in the communities that surround herbicide-spraying farms. The World Health Organization describes glyphosate and paraquat as probably carcinogenic.

Syngenta and Chevron, the current paraquat manufacturers, are facing thousands of paraquat lawsuits and could be looking to the fate of Bayer and its ill-advised acquisition of Monsanto a few years ago. The German company has settled more than 125,000 individual Roundup lawsuits in the US for more than $12 billion and is looking down the barrel of thousands more glyphosate lawsuits in the future. Bayer may have set aside another $17 billion by some reports to satisfy future glyphosate lawsuits. Occupational glyphosate users like landscapers, government property maintenance workers, and farmers allege to have developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a rare and deadly cancer of the lymph nodes from using glyphosate. Thousand of paraquat Parkinson's disease lawsuits are in the works by people who allege coming into contact with the indiscriminate defoliant caused them to develop Parkinson's disease, a neurological disease that eventually causes a total and irreversible loss of muscle control and loss of memory. Michael J. Fox is the most famous Parkinson's disease sufferer. The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), seeks to fund studies that hold Syngenta and Chevron accountable for their negligence in bringing such a toxic chemical to market. The US EPA has bent over backward over the last decade to enforce regulations concerning mixing, using, and storing paraquat but still contends that the chemical is not linked to developing 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.