#paraquat

[mvvocaloidgifs]

Paraquat - Hizumi Rei feat.13 Vocaloids

[seanhowe]

Eerie closing paragraph in a 7/18/78 San Francisco Examiner story about Carol Ruth Silver and Harvey Milk voting against an anti-paraquat measure: "Supervisor Dan White expressed shock that Milk and Silver had written letters to support probation for convicted drug dealer Dennis Peron."

[kontextmaschine]

The government taking "Havana syndrome" seriously is in part a result of having "learned the lessons" of "Gulf War Syndrome" which honestly at the time felt like a reenactment of Vietnam Agent Orange stuff

(Another connection? Paraquat! The government sponsored aerial spraying of Mexican marijuana fields with defoliant, which then caused marijuana-smoker paranoia about exposure and an industry of gimcrack woo to detect/cleanse it [sprayed plants did not flower and get harvested, defoliant killed them])

[probablyasocialecologist]

The Paraquat Papers: How Syngenta's bad science helped keep the world's deadliest weedkiller on the market

An Unearthed and Public Eye investigation reveals how a major pesticide company kept toxic paraquat in use around the world

Many people – including many children – have died from accidentally taking a sip of paraquat that someone had stored in a drink bottle. Many more have died in circumstances like Warunika’s – impulsive acts of self-harm that have more to do with a moment of stress than with any considered wish to die. In either situation, it is easy for a momentary mistake to be fatal, because the product allows almost no margin of error.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than 50 countries have now banned paraquat. Sri Lanka itself phased out the weedkiller altogether from 2008, a few years after Warunika’s death. Announcing their decision, the Sri Lankan authorities said the death rate from paraquat poisoning was at 65% – higher than “any other agrochemical”. Other common weedkillers had death rates of between 4% and 8%.

The company says paraquat is a “safe and effective herbicide when used as directed on the label”. It argues that almost “all modern innovations – buildings, bridges, railways, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, machines, and crop protection products – have been used for suicide” and that society needs to “focus on mental health issues, not deprive the world of useful technology”. It highlights how it has changed its packaging and labelling to discourage people from storing paraquat in food and drink containers, and trained “42 million farmers” in “proper use and storage”. Syngenta claims it has “helped address the problem of accidental ingestion” with the ‘safening’ agents it has added to Gramoxone since the 70s – a dye and an odour to warn people not to drink it, and an ‘emetic’ drug, to induce vomiting. It also claims product safety is “extremely important to us”, and that Syngenta has “led the continuous improvement of paraquat in the five decades since its invention”. 

But now, a lawsuit in the US has unearthed an enormous cache of internal company documents which reveals that Syngenta and its predecessors knew for decades that the emetic in Gramoxone did little or nothing to prevent poisoning deaths – but continued to present it as effective to regulators and the public.

The documents show how Imperial Chemical Industries successfully used the addition of this drug to Gramoxone to help keep the product on the market at a time when it faced real threats of being banned in key markets; that it saw this patented additive as a way of blocking competition from other paraquat manufacturers; that the company continued with these strategies despite knowing it had no evidence the emetic would save lives at the concentration in which it was added; that it was repeatedly told by its own scientists that the amount of emetic in Gramoxone was too low to prevent fatal poisonings; and that it consistently resisted the widespread introduction of safety measures like dilution because it did not consider them to be “economically acceptable” solutions to “the suicide problem”.

[rjzimmerman]

Ag Giant Resisted Efforts to Change Toxic Weed Killer Formula to Protect Profits

Internal corporate documents dating back to 1968 detail the need to make the ubiquitous herbicide safer for humans.

Excerpt from this story from Truthout:

While the toxic weed killer Paraquat, branded by Syngenta as Gramoxone, is part of the daily routine for many agricultural workers across the country, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns users on a government website that one small accidental sip can be fatal and there is no antidote. Regulators in the United States are grappling with a wave of research linking Paraquat to a less immediately apparent effect — Parkinson’s disease. And Syngenta — the Swiss-headquartered, Chinese-owned agrochemical company that now manufactures the weed killer — is currently facing litigation on that issue, though it denies responsibility.

Although first synthesized in 1882, Paraquat was not widely used as a herbicide until the middle of the 20th century. Today, though, it is used in more than 120 countries on more than 100 crops, including soybeans, wheat, rice, bananas, oranges, coffee and sugar cane. It gained notoriety after the United States government paid to have it sprayed on cannabis fields in Mexico during the late 1970s. One study conducted in 1978 found that 21 percent of the marijuana samples tested were found to be contaminated with the herbicide Paraquat.

According to a study published in Environmental Health, Paraquat is implicated in around 100 poisoning incidents in the U.S. each year, resulting in at least 17 deaths by acute poisoning over the last 20 years. As a result of its deadliness, more than 60 countries have already banned Paraquat, including Switzerland, the home base of the Paraquat maker Syngenta, which has banned the chemical since 1989. However, it is still popular and accessible to farmers in many countries, including the United States, and the toll from Paraquat poisonings is estimated at well into the thousands.

Syngenta states it is just one of the hundreds of companies worldwide that have registered Paraquat for sale. But now, hundreds of internal corporate documents, which date back to 1968, detail how the need for a safer formulation of Syngenta’s popular Paraquat-based product Gramoxone has been the subject of in-depth company discussions for decades. Analysis and data over the issue, as well as the arguments about the accuracy of evidence presented to regulators to avoid bans, are now laid out in the records. The Paraquat documents exclusively analyzed by Public Eye together with Unearthed, Greenpeace U.K.’s investigative journalism unit, show that the agrochemical giant and its predecessor corporate entities rejected or resisted many different options for changes to the formulations of Gramoxone on cost grounds and due to a desire to protect profits.

[sustainableslug]

Tell the EPA to Ban Paraquat Now

It's the most lethal pesticide still in use today. And yet the EPA is in the process of reapproving this nasty poison for use across million

Take Action: Tell the EPA to Ban Paraquat Now

"It's hardly a household name — and sounds like it could be a tropical fruit — but paraquat's no tasty treat. It's the most lethal pesticide in use today, and it can double your risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Just a teaspoon is a lethal dose for a full-grown adult, and songbirds and other small creatures living near where it's sprayed are exposed to amounts that could kill them many times over.

Yet somehow the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of reapproving this nasty poison, which will be used across millions of acres of U.S. crops, including peanuts, wheat, almonds, pears, grapes and strawberries."

[petrochemindian]

Indian Paraquat prices

Paraquat prices in Delhi posted a sharp increase this week, reflecting firm domestic market movement. Indian Paraquat prices closed at Rs 235.00/kg on July 9, 2026, compared with Rs 200.00/kg last week. The Rs 35.00/kg weekly rise highlights a strong shift in trading levels and keeps the product near the higher side of its recent range.

The monthly trend shows a Rs 15.00/kg increase, while the three-month comparison reflects a larger Rs 50.00/kg gain. On a six-month basis, Paraquat has risen Rs 65.00/kg from Rs 170.00/kg, showing a sustained upward move from earlier levels. The recent high was around Rs 260.00/kg, while current values remain below that resistance mark.

Indian Paraquat prices are supported near Rs 200.00/kg, with resistance placed around Rs 260.00/kg. Paraquat prices in India continue to serve as an important reference for buyers and traders assessing recent volatility, short-term procurement levels, and the broader upward trend seen over three-month and six-month periods. Paraquat, Chemical Prices, Market Strength, Weekly Gain, Petrochemicals, Agrochemicals.

Read the full verified update on IndianPetrochem.com.

[petrochemindian]

Indian Paraquat prices

Paraquat in the Mumbai domestic market has moved lower this week, with the latest level at Rs 330.00/kg. The product is down Rs 10.00/kg from last week and Rs 25.00/kg compared with the fortnight level. Indian Paraquat prices are therefore showing a clear short-term correction, although trading remains close to recently observed levels. The monthly comparison shows a decline of Rs 20.00/kg, with the product moving away from the recent high near Rs 355.00/kg. In the three-month view, Paraquat remains unchanged at Rs 330.00/kg, which points to a stable base after the recent correction. The six-month comparison remains stronger, with the price up Rs 80.00/kg from Rs 250.00/kg. Indian Paraquat prices are now positioned around support at Rs 330.00/kg, while resistance is seen near Rs 355.00/kg. Paraquat prices in India remain useful for buyers tracking short-term market adjustment against longer-term recovery. Paraquat, Chemical Prices, Market Correction, Weekly Update, Petrochemicals, Agrochemicals. Read the full verified update on IndianPetrochem.com.