Back on computer, 3rd time effort - Australia's top neurologists call for chemical regulator to ban paraquat herbicide over links with Parkinson's disease
By ABC regional investigations' Andy Burns and Nathan Morris
Monday 28 October
Neurologist David Blacker is calling on the Australian regulator to ban the herbicide paraquat. (Supplied) In short:
Leading neurologists and movement disorder specialists have made submissions to the Australian chemical regulator calling for a ban on paraquat, over its links with Parkinson's disease.
Grain growers argue the herbicide is vital to crop production and say a ban could severely impact food supply and sustainable farming practices.
[...]
Dr Sue told the ABC her organisation felt it was past time to speak up.
"This is a very clear case where environment exposures in epidemiological studies have brought up the association of their exposure to the development of Parkinson's disease," she said.
The Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists (ANZAN) is also supporting MDSANZ call to ban paraquat, calling Australia an "outlier."
Dr Blacker, a clinical professor and noted expert in his own field, said it was reassuring to be backed by these leading peak bodies.
"To have the highest level of expert endorsing this data really means that I'm not acting like a maverick," he said. A label on a plastic tub reads CORROSIVE LIQUID, TOXIC N.O.S. PARAQUAT DICHLORIDE
Paraquat is listed as a schedule 7 poison in Australia, which requires a licence to purchase. (Supplied)
Grain growers say risks can be managed
[...]
US neurologists also pushing for paraquat ban
In the US, Rochester University professors Ray Dorsey and Michael Okun are also lobbying the APVMA to ban paraquat in Australia.
In a letter to the regulator's CEO, Scott Hansen, they warned the health risk was not limited to farmers.
"As you know, farmers who work with paraquat have a 150 per cent increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease," Dr Dorsey and Dr Okun wrote in October.
"It is not just farmers who are at risk. The risk of Parkinson's among individuals who work or simply live near where paraquat is sprayed is doubled.
"These individuals have little protection from the weedkiller's effects."
As Australian farmers have adopted zero-till farming, they have relied more on chemicals to control weeds. (Clint Jasper)
The professors also called on the regulator to consider the tactics of Syngenta, the company that first manufactured paraquat.
"Researchers from around the world have demonstrated that in the laboratory, paraquat produces [in animals] the symptoms (including tremor) and pathology (loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells) of Parkinson's … this research has been conducted by researchers from around the world for the past 25 years," they wrote.
Syngenta maintains that paraquat does not cause Parkinson's disease and is safe to use if the label is followed.
But Dr Dorsey and Dr Okun note that in the 1960s, the company's own researchers "exposed mice, rats, and rabbits to paraquat, and they developed the symptoms and pathology of the disease".
A page from a journal article with several sections highlighted and text boxes explaining their significance A 1966 journal article titled The Toxicity of Paraquat, published by scientists from Imperial Chemical Industries, noted rats injected with the chemical exhibited spasms, tremors and "violent forced movements". (Supplied)
"The company … has also sought to discredit scientists investigating paraquat and concealed its own research findings from regulators," Dr Dorsey and Dr Okun wrote.
"These actions beg the question of what else does the company know about paraquat that we do not? Of note, the company's home country and England, where the pesticide is manufactured, have long banned use of the toxic weedkiller."
Dr Blacker told the ABC he doesn't want to be seen as an activist, but as a neurologist representing medical science.
"Future generations are going to look back and think they poisoned themselves," he said.
"[They'll wonder] why did Australia take so long? Why did the United States take so long to join the rest of the world?"
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