Lawsuits Linking Paraquat Herbicide to Parkinson’s Disease Increase in California And Illinois

MADISON, Wis. –– Lawsuits linking paraquat-based herbicides have increased in recent months, with the majority of the new complaints filed in California and Illinois against Syngenta Crop Protection and Chevron U.S.A. Inc.

In one of the cases, filed April 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Todd Tenneson contended that the defendants had knowledge of studies finding an association between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease and “actively and fraudulently concealed this information from Plaintiff and others.”

According to the plaintiffs, the herbicidal properties of paraquat were discovered in 1955; it was marketed in 1962 under …