Children's Health Defense By
Concerns about the safety of paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide, pushed the EPA in 2021 to ban its use on golf courses — but the EPA still allows the weedkiller to be sprayed on almonds, walnuts, alfalfa and other crops.
By Julia Conley
Concerns about the safety of paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide, pushed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2021 to ban its use on golf courses — but the weedkiller is still permitted for agricultural use, and a new first-of-its-kind analysis shows how the EPA’s continued approval of the substance has put low-income Latino communities at disproportionate risk for health impacts.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found in the study released on March 27 that 5.3 million pounds of paraquat were sprayed over a five-year period in California, the only state with readily available figures on the herbicide.
Most of the weedkiller’s use was concentrated in central counties where farms produce almonds, walnuts, alfalfa and other crops — and where Latino people make up about 75% of the population and nearly the entire farm labor force.
Ninety-six percent of farmworkers in the state are Latino, and 90% of people in the agricultural workforce were born outside of the U.S., making immigrants who often work for low wages among the people who are most affected by continued use of paraquat on farms.
The EPA says that the weedkiller paraquat is too toxic to use on golf courses, so why does the agency still allow the dangerous herbicide to be sprayed on crop fields? https://t.co/hj6HZ419nb
— EWG (@ewg) March 28, 2024
The ingestion of a single teaspoon of paraquat is considered deadly, which has led 60 countries to ban the chemical while the EPA released an analysis in January concluding that its health risks were outweighed by the economic benefits of using paraquat.
The weedkiller has been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, respiratory damage, kidney disease and childhood leukemia.
Al Rabine, an analyst for EWG who authored the report, said the EPA has also ignored a “mountain of evidence” that paraquat causes Parkinson’s disease.
An epidemiological study of central California found that people living within a third of a mile of where paraquat is sprayed are twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s.
“Paraquat is not only a threat to our environment but also a direct danger to the health and well-being of these communities, particularly Latino populations, who make up the majority of the population,” said Rabine.
Rabine continued:
“The findings of our analysis underscore the urgent need for action by the state to protect these communities from the harmful effects of exposure to this toxic weedkiller.”
Between 2017-2021, EWG found, about 80% of the paraquat used on California crops was sprayed within Latino-majority census tracts. The group identified Kern County and the towns of Shafter and Wasco as “hot spots” for paraquat use.
“These three communities combined have over 80% Latino residents who witnessed almost 180,000 pounds of paraquat spraying during that time period,” the group said.
In Kern County, which has a poverty rate of nearly 30%, EWG found that 1.2 million pounds of the herbicide were sprayed over roughly 1,200 square miles of farmland — threatening not only laborers who completed the work but also farmworkers who live in the surrounding communities, as paraquat can remain in soil and travel through the air — as well as coming home with workers on their clothing and potentially exposing their families…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (childrenshealthdefense.org)
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