"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to withdraw its interim regulatory decision on paraquat, announcing that it needs more time to examine the potential health effects of the weed killing chemical that has been widely used in agriculture for decades, but also linked for years to the incurable brain ailment known as Parkinson’s disease.

The EPA had promised to issue a report by Friday, January 17 updating its position on paraquat after a petition filed by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and several other health advocacy organizations challenged the EPA’s 2021 interim registration review decision in which the agency concluded that there was “insufficient”  evidence linking paraquat exposure to Parkinson’s.

That interim EPA decision did call for certain mitigation measures to reduce risks the agency said it found necessary to protect human health and the environment, and labels on paraquat products were amended in 2022 to reflect those measures. But critics have pressed the EPA to go further and ban the pesticide entirely.

The petition, filed in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, challenged not only the agency’s position on Parkinson’s risk, but also the EPA’s analysis of respiratory and dermal exposures, exposure risks from paraquat drift, and how to balance paraquat’s risks and benefits."

Carey Gillam reports for The New Lede January 18 2025. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"70 Countries Have Banned This Pesticide. It’s Still For Sale In The U.S." (Washington Post) [3]