Title: Australia's top neurologists call for chemical regulator to ban paraquat herbicide over links with Parkinson's disease
More than 40 signatures from specialists in clinical neurology, including 31 neurologists, eight movement disorders specialists and 10 professors are calling for a ban on the pesticide paraquat. Paraquat is used extensively in Australia despite being banned as too dangerous in more than 70 countries, including the EU.
The ABC also reports that the Movement Disorder Society of Australia and New Zealand (MDSANZ), as well as other world leading-scientists, have made submissions to the review, supporting calls for paraquat to be banned.
The medical specialists say the evidence on paraquat 'warrants immediate action' In the submission, leading neurologist Dr David Blacker and his colleagues have called on the APVMA to take swift action. "What I would like them to do is listen to the experts in health," he told the ABC. "It's not just an agricultural problem, it's a health problem, and it's also an environmental problem.
MDSANZ president Carolyn Sue is a world renowned expert in movement disorders. In a submission to the regulator, she described the paraquat situation as a critical public health issue. "The evidence supporting this connection is compelling and warrants immediate action to protect public health," she wrote. "The health risks associated with this herbicide far outweigh any potential benefits, and alternatives are available that do not pose such severe threats to human health."
Dr Sue told the ABC her organisation felt it was past time to speak up. "This is a very clear case where environment exposures in epidemiological studies have brought up the association of their exposure to the development of Parkinson's disease," she said. The Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists (ANZAN) is also supporting MDSANZ call to ban paraquat, calling Australia an "outlier."
