The EPA's Warnings And Restrictions On Working Around Paraquat Is Too Late For Career Farmhands And Others

Farmhands drenched in paraquat are recognizing the weedkiller is responsible for causing their disease

Thursday, September 2, 2021 - If you have been following these and other articles monitoring the critical paraquat situation developing in the United States, it will come as no surprise that people are speaking with paraquat Parkinson's disease lawyers and filing lawsuits against Syngenta and Chevron. Plaintiffs with Parkinson's disease accuse the companies of failing to warn them that inhaling the chemical defoliant can cause the deadly neurological disorder. Each lawsuit makes news in legal circles although, the plaintiffs taking action are either farmers or the residents of neighborhoods surrounding farms that spray paraquat. Individual farmworkers whose job is to walk the fields with backpack sprayers or to stand on the ground and direct pilots who spray paraquat (human flaggers) are at the highest risk of being exposed to the highly toxic chemical via inhalation and also direct skin contact. If anyone is likely to develop Parkinson's disease or cancer from paraquat exposure it is the farmworkers who go home drenched in paraquat day after day for most of their career. Hundreds of Paraquat lawsuits have been filed by farmers throughout the United States. A lawsuit was filed the other day by a farmworker who has developed Parkinson's disease from just such an occupational exposure to the deadly defoliant.

Thomas Turney, a Michigan farmhand, filed suit against the makers of paraquat after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, alleging both companies had an obligation to forewarn him of Paraquat dangers from working with the chemical. The plaintiff was unaware that inhaling or coming into contact with paraquat could cause a deadly brain disorder. "Thomas Turney and his wife, Sandra, filed the complaint (PDF) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on August 26, indicating that Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. failed to disclose that chronic exposure to Paraquat could cause farm workers to develop Parkinson's disease," according to AboutLawsuits.com. Mr. Turney was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in September 2018, years after his first paraquat exposure. Lawyers for Mr. Turney said he had no reason to suspect his degenerative neurological condition with inhaling and coming into direct skin contact with the weedkiller as neither the government nor the media or the chemical's manufacturers warned him to take precautions and at least wear PPE, personal protective equipment as they do today. Had he started at his occupation today he would have worn a respirator to avoid inhaling paraquat fumes and been required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to take courses warning him of the dangers of inhaling or touching paraquat and earn a license to be a paraquat applicator. During his employment, no such requirement existed until it was decades too late. Paraquat is a weedkiller that is so highly toxic it is used only as a last resort when weeds and unwanted grasses have become genetically resistant to Monsanto's glyphosate.

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.