Paul Friday remembers when his hand started flopping in the cold weather – the first sign nerve cells in his brain were dying. He was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a brain disease that gets worse over time. His limbs got stiffer. He struggled to walk. He couldn’t keep living on his family farm. Shortly afterward, Friday came to believe that decades of spraying a pesticide called paraquat at his peach orchard in southwestern Michigan may be the culprit. The pesticide, a weed killer, is extremely toxic. With evidence of its harms stacking up, it’s already been banned in dozens of countries all over the world, including the United Kingdom and China, where it’s made. Yet last year, its manufacturer Syngenta, a subsidiary of a company owned by the Chinese government, continued selling paraquat in the United States and other nations that haven’t banned it.

The southeastern Louisiana city of St. Gabriel has zero major fast food chain restaurants, pharmacies or laundromats. But there are nearly a dozen chemical facilities within city limits and at least 30 within a 10 mile radius. St. Gabriel is home to the Syngenta agrochemical facility, which repackages a popular but highly toxic farming pesticide known as paraquat under the brand name Gramoxone before it is distributed to other states. The plant is owned by the Chinese company SinoChem Holdings Ltd.  A report released in October by Coming Clean, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network warned of the dangers of paraquat exposure. Banned in over 70 countries, it remains one of the most commonly used chemicals by farmers in the United States for weed management — with the largest point of entry in the last eight years being the Port of New Orleans, according to Jim Vallete, a contributing researcher to the report. 

A new analysis showed the harmful life cycle from production to application of a widely used pesticide in North Carolina. The chemical paraquat is a quick-acting herbicide used for weed control. Long-term exposure to paraquat has been associated with thyroid cancer, impaired kidney function, childhood leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. The study "Designed to Kill: Who Profits From Paraquat?" looks at SinoChem Holdings, a Chinese-owned company selling tens of millions of dollars in paraquat to the U.S. each year. Kendall Wimberley, policy manager for the group Toxic Free NC, pointed out it is despite the fact China has banned the chemical. Wimberley argued we should not consider simply banning a pesticide like paraquat but look at the bigger picture."The need to get off of this pesticide treadmill, and we can't just ban one chemical at a time," Wimberley contended. "We need to be looking at these as classes of chemicals."

Un nuevo informe revela que los EE. UU. importan decenas de millones de toneladas de paraquat anualmente de China y el Reino Unido, ambos países que han prohibido el uso del plaguicida debido a preocupaciones por el riesgo a la salud y seguridad. Récords comerciales muestran que las importaciones estadounidenses de paraquat han aumentado esta década, aún cuando más de 70 países alrededor del mundo prohíben su uso. La exposición al paraquat se ha atado al mal de Parkinson, cáncer de la tiroide, daño pulmonar y otras condiciones de salud serias. El informe incluye testimonios de campesinos que probablemente fueron expuestos al paraquat en granjas estadounidenses y quienes luego desarrollaron quemazón debilitante de la piel, el mal de Parkinson y daño pulmonar. “Hasta recientemente, no sabía que mi papá probablemente adquirió el mal de Parkinson por sus años de trabajo en los campos de algodón, donde probablemente se usaba el paraquat,” dijo Mirna, miembro de la Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, cuyo padre era campesino en California y falleció por complicaciones del mal de Parkinson. “El gobierno tiene que reconocer el impacto de usar estos químicos porque afectan el ambiente y la salud de nuestra comunidad.”

A new report reveals that the U.S. imports tens of millions of tons of paraquat a year from China and the United Kingdom, countries that have both banned the pesticide due to health and safety concerns. Trade records show that U.S. paraquat imports have increased this decade, even as over 70 countries worldwide prohibit its use. Paraquat exposure has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, thyroid cancer, lung damage, and other serious health conditions. “Corporate greed and weak U.S. pesticide regulations are driving a health crisis for farmworkers, farmers and rural communities. Foreign-owned agrochemical companies are profiting while our essential farming communities suffer,” said Judy Robinson, Executive Director of Coming Clean.