In their preliminary findings released this week, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation concluded that the herbicide paraquat caused harm to wildlife and human health, including thyroid disease and birth defects. Paraquat, which has been linked to a range of diseases, is banned in more than 70 countries.
While it is still approved for use in the United States, the preliminary findings is in “response to requests from conservation and public health groups to reevaluate approval of the herbicide paraquat and ban its use in the state,” according to the Center of Biological Diversity.
“The evidence continues to mount that paraquat is just too dangerous,” Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “The most effective way to avoid paraquat’s risks is for California to join nations throughout the world and ban its use. The state can’t keep letting Big Ag use hundreds of thousands of pounds a year of this incredibly harmful herbicide.”
In 2023, California used more than 350,000 pounds of paraquat concentrated in the San Joaquin Valley. Some birds and mammals, including some of the state’s most endangered species like the San Joaquin kit fox and Swainson’s hawk, are at potential risk. The preliminary findings also confirmed human health impacts linking paraquat to thyroid disease, birth and reproductive harms, cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
An ongoing lawsuit brought forth by farmworker groups, environmentalists and health organizations, and filed by Earthjustice, is challenging the EPA’s re-approval of paraquat, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The EPA is now required by law, A.B. 1963, which passed in California in 2024, to reevaluate the use of the herbicide.
COMMENTS