Ban Parkinson's-Linked Paraquat Until the EPA Reviews the Hidden Safety Data

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Paraquat is one of the most toxic herbicides ever approved for use in the United States. A single small dose can kill an adult. More than 50 countries — including the UK, where its manufacturer Syngenta is headquartered — have banned it outright. Yet paraquat remains in active use on American farms, applied to fields of corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat across the country.^1,2

Now, thousands of lawsuits filed by farmworkers who developed Parkinson's disease after paraquat exposure are pulling back the curtain on what regulators were — and weren't — told when the chemical was approved.

Hidden Data, Incomplete Review

Internal documents surfaced through the litigation reveal that Syngenta held safety data relevant to paraquat's neurological risks and never submitted it to the EPA.^1,2 That is a serious problem under federal law. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act requires pesticide manufacturers to provide regulators with all relevant safety data. The EPA uses that data as the foundation for its registration decisions. If the data was incomplete, the approval built on it was incomplete too.

In January 2026, Syngenta settled a bellwether trial on the eve of jury selection — a move that reflects how seriously the company weighs its legal exposure across the thousands of remaining claims.⁶

The EPA Has Acknowledged the Problem — and Stopped There

The EPA itself recognized that something was wrong. Earlier this year, the agency announced a roundtable to examine what it called the "documented safety challenges" of paraquat.⁴ But a roundtable is not a formal review. As of January 2026, the EPA had not initiated a new safety review of the chemical, meaning paraquat registrations remain active while the evidence that supported them is under direct scrutiny.⁵

California Moved. The Federal Government Has Not.

California recognized the gap between what regulators knew and what the science suggests, and moved to phase paraquat out entirely, citing the link to Parkinson's disease.³ Parkinson's is a progressive neurological disorder. There is no cure, and there is no reversing the damage once it begins.

Farmers, farmworkers, and rural families across the rest of the country continue to be exposed to a chemical whose complete safety record the EPA has never fully evaluated. Many of them have limited access to healthcare and little power to protect themselves from risks they may not even know exist.

What Needs to Happen

The newly disclosed documents change what the EPA knows. The agency now has access to safety data it did not have — or was not given — during its prior review. Whether that data would alter its conclusions is unknown, because a proper review has not taken place. That review must happen before paraquat registrations can be considered valid under the law people who work the land depend on for protection.

Sign the petition now to urge the EPA Administrator to suspend paraquat registrations immediately and conduct an independent review of all newly disclosed safety records before any registration is reinstated or renewed.