The Environmental Protection Agency has affirmed its finding that the “weight of evidence is insufficient” to link exposure from use of paraquat to Parkinson’s Disease in humans.
In a preliminary document prepared as part of a court challenge to an interim decision from 2021, EPA concluded that there were “weaknesses within and across the epidemiological, whole animal, and in vitro data” it examined, finding that only 10% of about 200 animal studies it looked at were without “numerous limitations or deficiencies.”
In the remaining 90% of studies, animals were directly injected with the test substance, which is not a “relevant pathway, given the anticipated routes of exposure to occupational workers or the general population (i.e., through oral, dermal, and inhalation pathways),” EPA said in the document, prepared by scientists in the Office of Pesticide Programs.
Discussing a previous literature review that was prepared to support the 2021 interim registration decision, EPA said it “considered numerous lines of evidence and adhered to established risk management practices in selecting endpoints most protective of the potential exposure to paraquat from dietary sources, to bystanders, and agricultural handlers and workers.”
The latest review was prompted by a lawsuit brought by farmworkers, environmental groups and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. In 2022, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the agency’s request to hold the matter in abeyance while it reconsidered the data.
EPA said it was unable to consider information those groups submitted in August, but would before it releases the final version of its reconsideration document in January 2025.
“This information consisted of approximately 90 submissions including scientific studies, as well as testimony filed in an ongoing state lawsuit concerning paraquat,” EPA said.
In addition to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the groups challenging the registration review decision are the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Farmworker Association of Florida, Farmworker Justice, Alianza Nacional De Campesinas, Pesticide Action Network North America, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Toxic Free North Carolina.
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Those groups said Wednesday that EPA’s proposed findings “ignore the scientific evidence that farmworkers and agricultural communities exposed to the herbicide paraquat are more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.”
“Fifty-eight countries, including China and members of the European Union, have banned paraquat because of its extreme toxicity, including its connection to Parkinson’s disease,” they said in a news release. “Research shows that farmworkers exposed to paraquat are more than twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, a finding supported by extensive animal testing and other evidence.”
“EPA can still correct its flawed registration decision, but it needs to follow the science and join dozens of other countries in banning paraquat,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a senior attorney with Earthjustice.
EPA said in the preliminary findings that even though paraquat applicators may use the herbicide every year, “this does not represent continuous long-term or chronic exposure to paraquat but rather represents a series of short- or intermediate-term exposures given the seasonal application timing of paraquat.”
It noted, however, that it had received information on Jan. 18 about paraquat’s vapor pressure, “which could impact [its] volatilization screen results and ecological analysis of paraquat’s environmental fate as well as [its] conclusions about the potential for exposures from volatilization.”
EPA said it wasn’t able to consider the data for the document released Wednesday, but it will do so “as it moves forward with its ongoing work to finalize this document by next January 2025.”
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