The House introduced the Paraquat Prevention Act last week that would federally ban the use of the herbicide in U.S. agriculture. Introduced by Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), the bill would “direct the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel all existing paraquat registrations, revoke any tolerances permitting paraquat residue in food, and ban the sale and use of existing stocks upon enactment,” Luna said.
“Paraquat has been banned in over 70 countries, including every nation in the European Union, because the science is clear about the devastating neurological risks associated with exposure,” Luna said. “The United States has no business allowing a chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease to keep being sprayed on American farmland, and this bill ends that.”
While the European Union and more than 70 countries have banned paraquat, the United States remains one of the few developed nations that still permits the herbicide’s use. Research has linked the exposure of paraquat to several health impacts of including increased risks of Parkinson’s disease. Studies from the National Institutes of Health have found that individuals exposed to paraquat face a significantly elevated risk of developing the disease, with laboratory research demonstrating that the chemical directly damages the dopaminergic neurons whose destruction causes Parkinson’s.
“Independent scientific evidence has found that exposure to paraquat has lead to increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, yet the EPA has continued to allow this pesticide to be used in our communities,” Andi Fristedt, executive vice president and chief strategy and policy officer for the Parkinson’s Foundation, said. “By banning paraquat, the Paraquat Prevention Act would protect Americans and help create a world where fewer people develop Parkinson’s disease in the first place. The Parkinson’s Foundation is grateful to the bipartisan leadership of Representatives Luna and Pingree to help bring the U.S. one step closer to joining the more than 70 countries that have already banned paraquat.”
Advocates of the ban said the introduced legislation would close the government loophole by “removing paraquat from the market entirely and prohibiting any future pathway for re-registration” protecting American farmers, farmworkers, and rural families.
“We applaud Representatives Luna and Pingree for highlighting the threat of paraquat to farmers and rural communities,” Geoff Horsfield, legislative director for the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said. “The people who feed us should not face twice the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. States across the country have a clear path and example to end the use of one of the most toxic herbicides and should pass their own paraquat bans.”
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