Paraquat will continue to be used in Australia despite 70 countries banning weedkiller over Parkinson’s disease fears

The herbicide paraquat, banned in over 70 countries, will remain legal in Australia despite Parkinson’s groups, scientists and neurologists arguing there is a strong correlation between direct exposure and the incidence of the disease. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) announced its final decision on Tuesday following a decades-long review of the highly toxic paraquat and a related chemical, diquat. Both are widely used in Australian agriculture. The regulator will continue to allow their use, but with stricter conditions to reduce the exposure risk for farm workers, birds and mammals. Paraquat is used in broad-acre farming, particularly for grains, sugarcane, cotton and horticulture. The APVMA chief executive, Scott Hansen, said that while the regulator would have liked to find a clear answer as to what caused Parkinson’s, the review of hundreds of scientific papers and long-term data had not established a causal link between paraquat and the debilitating neurological disease. Tuesday’s ruling was not a surprise, given it had been flagged in an earlier draft. It’s unlikely to end the controversy regarding paraquat and diquat – and Australia’s approach to regulating agricultural chemicals. About 70 countries have banned the highly toxic paraquat. The European Union and the UK banned it in 2007 after a lawsuit found the manufacturer, Sygenta, had not established the safety of the herbicide, and its initial assessment was flawed. …