Legislation that would ban the use of paraquat, a fast-acting and highly toxic herbicide that studies have linked to Parkinson’s disease, easily passed the Vermont House last month.
But H.739 now faces a chillier reception in the Senate. To drum up support, proponents of the ban gathered at the Statehouse on Wednesday for a press conference to make their case.
Geo Honigford, a retired farmer from South Royalton, took to the podium to say he’d watched his father, “the biggest, strongest person I knew,” become enfeebled by Parkinson’s and eventually die. His father had been exposed to paraquat and other agriculture chemicals, Honigford said.
“We can't relive our lives, but if we were able to, I'm sure he would say the one thing he'd play back different is avoid that exposure. But he can't, and he's gone,” Honigford said.
Though more than 70 countries have banned paraquat over safety concerns, including the European Union, Brazil and China, the chemical weed-killer remains popular in the U.S. But now efforts are underway in about a dozen states, including Vermont, to ban or restrict the use of paraquat.
Experts believe genetics and environmental factors together contribute to Parkinson’s. And while it has not been definitively established that paraquat causes the disease, a growing body of evidence suggests a link between exposure to the herbicide and Parkinson’s, along with other health conditions.
Syngenta, one maker of paraquat, is facing thousands of lawsuits over Parkinson’s. The company continues to maintain the science linking their product with the disease is inconclusive, but it also announced last month that it would stop producing the herbicide.
Backers of H.739 include the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, as well as the University of Vermont’s Frederick C. Binter Center for Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders.
The paraquat ban is now in the Senate Committee on Agriculture where its chair, Republican Sen. Russ Ingalls, is openly skeptical of the effort.
“We have, you know, states that use half a million gallons of this stuff. California uses 500,000 gallons a year. I'm always nervous to be the first state to ban anything,” he told Vermont Public.
Ingalls expressed doubts about the strength of scientific evidence against paraquat. And he said he had found testimony from farmers compelling.
“The farmers that are using this have no other alternative, whether it's the strawberries or whether it's the apples. For their business model, they have no other alternative, no other chemical,” he said.
Paraquat is in active use in Vermont, although in relatively small amounts, mostly by orchardists. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets told lawmakers only 125 gallons of the herbicide were sold in the state last year.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Honigford, the retired farmer, said he understood what it was like to have to change practices over environmental concerns. He said he phased out using manure after realizing his phosphorus levels were “off the charts.” And while “a little bit of pain was involved,” Honigford said, “the farm didn’t collapse.”
Over 2,500 people live with Parkinson’s disease in Vermont. A handful attended the press event, including Goddard Graves, who traveled from Woodbury.
He told Vermont Public the legislation was “long overdue,” and that he hoped lawmakers would “take 10 or 15 minutes to read the material, do some thinking and then do the right thing.”
“You know, they can leave it at the office. I can't leave it at the office, and thousands of others can't either,” he said.
