Paraquat & Parkinson's: A 60-year history

Oct. 24, 2024 The Midwest Center For Investigative Reporting

Did Syngenta know its weedkiller caused brain damage?

Does Gramoxone, a popular weedkiller sold by Syngenta, cause Parkinson’s disease? That’s the claim by nearly 6,000 people who are suing the large chemical company.

This week’s top story takes an in-depth look at those claims, using thousands of pages of court records to show how Syngenta’s own scientists believed the weedkiller had the potential to damage the brain and nervous system as far back as the 1950s.

But the story also reports on John Platt, a Florida rancher who believes the weedkiller caused him to develop Parkinson’s disease.

"We now know that had a significant impact on my life," Platt says in the story. "We wouldn't have continued to use it if we had known what impact it was going to have."

In 2021, the EPA re-approved the product for sale, claiming it was safe to use. However, the federal agency is now reconsidering that claim after facing a legal challenge by a group of nonprofits.

You won’t want to miss this investigation into one of the most widely used herbicides in the country.

— Ben Felder, editor in chief

Unsealed: Syngenta spent decades attempting to quiet health concerns about its profitable herbicide.
By Evy Lewis, Dow Jones News Fund intern/Investigate Midwest

In 2004, John Platt and his wife purchased 26 acres of untouched woodlands in Florida’s panhandle. As they transformed it into a horse ranch, they toppled trees and stripped the undergrowth with the herbicide paraquat. Through 2012, Platt sprayed the powerful weedkiller for multiple days in a row each year, by hand.

When Platt bought the land, he weighed around 190 pounds, he said. Now, as he battles Parkinson’s disease, he’s dropped to under 150 pounds. His symptoms, he said, are incessant. He has tremors, difficulty recalling words and severe fatigue. He blames the paraquat.

“We now know that had a significant impact on my life,” Platt said. “We wouldn’t have continued to use it if we had known what impact it was going to have.”

Platt is one of approximately 6,000 people currently suing Syngenta, which sells paraquat under the trade name Gramoxone. They allege the popular weedkiller led to their Parkinson’s disease, a condition that destroys motor functions. Syngenta, one of the largest chemical companies in the world, has disputed the allegations.

However, thousands of pages of records released in litigation, spanning Syngenta’s decades-long history, show the company’s own scientists determined that paraquat had the potential to damage the brain and nervous system as far back as the 1950s.

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GRAPHIC: Listeria outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meats deadliest since 2011
By Sky Chadde, Investigate Midwest

Over the summer, a supermarket staple, Boar’s Head deli meat, was recalled. In more than a dozen states, people had fallen sick and been hospitalized because the processed food had Listeria, a foodborne disease.

At least 10 deaths have been linked to the outbreak from Boar’s Head’s facility in Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the deadliest Listeria outbreak since 2011, when 33 people died from eating diseased cantaloupes from Colorado.

Before the recall, the federal government had documented problems at the facility over the course of a year — inspectors had found black mold and flies, according to The New York Times.

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ADM sued by man severely injured in 2023 explosion
By Sky Chadde, Investigate Midwest

A man injured in a 2023 explosion at Archer Daniels Midland’s facility in Decatur, Illinois, has sued the company, alleging the agriculture giant’s actions leading up to the explosion “displayed actual intent to harm its employees,” according to the complaint filed in county court Oct. 15.

ADM had a system in place to prevent explosions in the plant, but the system had not received maintenance since late 2016, federal safety inspectors found. Also, according to the lawsuit, the amount of corn germ dust — a combustible material — in the area of the plant that exploded had reached unsafe levels.

When Antonio McElrath arrived at ADM’s facility on April 20, 2023, the previous shift did not tell him about the dust buildup, according to the lawsuit. The buildup was in what’s called a bucket elevator.

Later in his shift, McElrath’s supervisor noticed smoke coming from the elevator. According to the lawsuit, this meant an explosion was “imminent.” When the burning material was exposed to oxygen, the explosion occurred.

McElrath suffered third-degree burns to his face, head and body, and he is now disfigured. “He has lifelong injuries,” his lawyer, Nicholas Williams, said.

This investigation from 2020 spotlighted the Protect America's Children from Toxic Pesticides Act from that year. It was meant to implement a reporting requirement and other protections related to farmworkers who are exposed to certain pesticide active ingredients that result in illness, injury, disability, or death. The bill did not pass in 2020.

Each year, farmers across the United States spray millions of pounds of pesticides that are linked to brain damage in children, Parkinson’s disease, endocrine issues and the decline of insect and bird populations.

A bill introduced in Congress earlier this month could change that.

Called the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2020, the bill provides a framework for fixing what sponsors Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colorado) dub America’s “broken and outdated” pesticide regulatory system.

Under the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide and Fungicide Act, the nation’s top law regulating pesticides, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has significant latitude in approving which chemicals can be sprayed, Udall said.

“The EPA has been coming down on the side of industry profits and against the health of children, farmworkers, families and the environment,” Udall said in a recent press event. “It’s time to put our children ahead of the chemical industry.”

OPINION: Lower ag greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 driven by market, climate shifts — not policy
By Dave Dickey, Columnist

The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation has gotten it totally wrong on why agricultural greenhouse gas emissions have fallen in the EPA's most recent annual emissions inventory report.

The EPA report showed agricultural emissions nationwide dropped an admirable 1.8% from 2021 to 2022. U.S. agricultural emissions in 2022 were 634 million metric tons in CO2 equivalents — 9.99% of all U.S. greenhouse emissions. The 2022 ag decline was the largest decrease of all sectors that EPA reports on including transportation, energy and industrial usage.

On the surface, that’s great news for combating climate change brought on by greenhouse gas warming the planet. Right? But check under the hood, and it’s a different story.

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