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 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.
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