Paraquat Legal News Articles & Interviews

Paraquat is a commercial herbicide widely used in the United States. Farmers have had access to it since 1962, and it is known as "gramoxone" in the country. It is used to control and kill weeds in cotton, potato, sugarcane, soybean, and vegetable varieties. This herbicide contains extremely toxic properties, which can be fatal to humans if consumed directly. Paraquat is also used as a post-harvest drying agent.

Shreveport, LA  In a toxic tort lawsuit filed in the Western District of Louisiana, Michael Hensgens alleges that low-level exposure to Paraquat over the years he worked as a Paraquat distributor caused his Parkinson’s disease. Hensgens v. Syngenta will likely be consolidated for pretrial motions with the growing body of Paraquat litigation in the Southern District of Illinois.

Wilmington, DE On May 17 Syngenta, the manufacturer and distributor of paraquat-based herbicides, filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware seeking a declaratory judgment that would compel nearly 100 insurers to undertake Syngenta’s defense in the growing number of product-based personal injury lawsuits. The underlying lawsuits focus on the link between the herbicide and Parkinson’s disease, which appears with disproportionate frequency in professionals who used the product under license and according to the manufacturer’s directions. Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Company also seeks damages against insurers who, according to the company, also breached other contractual provisions. Some of these breaches allegedly occurred decades ago.

San Francisco, CA On April 2, Russell Denes filed a personal injury Paraquat lawsuit in the Northern District of California, alleging that his Parkinson’s disease was caused by his decades’ long, low-dose exposure to Paraquat. Denes, a certified pesticide applicator, allegedly used the herbicide according to safety regulations, and was aware that Paraquat was acutely toxic.