When the global agriculture giant Syngenta announced this spring it would halt production of the herbicide paraquat, pesticide safety and Parkinson’s advocates welcomed the action. But they stressed that the move won’t eliminate sales and use of the highly toxic pesticide linked in multiple studies to increased Parkinson’s risk.
An analysis of global trade records by WUFT shows that hundreds more chemical companies continue to manufacture paraquat and export it worldwide.
The majority of all paraquat exports originate in China, which bans use of the herbicide to protect its citizens from harm.
Over 83 million pounds of paraquat arrived at 10 U.S. ports from eight global ports over the past year.
About half of that, or 45 million pounds, came in at the Port of Savannah, the third-largest container port in the nation.
Ten million pounds of paraquat arrived in Los Angeles. Two million pounds came ashore at the Port of New Orleans.
Seventy-eight million pounds of the U.S.-bound paraquat originated in China between April 2025 and April 2026. Chinese agrochemical companies Shijiazhuang Baofeng Chemical; Nanjing Red Sun Biochemical; and Sinochem International were among the major exporters.
Sinochem is a Chinese state-owned enterprise that has been the parent company of Syngenta since 2021, when it merged with ChemChina, which acquired Switzerland-based Syngenta for $43 billion in 2017.
The Global Paraquat Trail
China and South Korea both ban paraquat but export it to the U.S.
A WUFT analysis of bans on the deadly herbicide paraquat from around the world shows that 74 countries now ban the compound. Yet two of the countries that ban paraquat to protect their own citizens continue to export it to the United States, where its use tripled from 2008 to 2018.
Syngenta reported that its decision to stop manufacturing paraquat in its U.K. factory reflected “significant competition from generic producers around the world, which has eroded Syngenta’s competitiveness in the production of this herbicide.”
The company also faces thousands of product liability lawsuits filed by American agricultural workers who allege its paraquat herbicide brand, Gramoxone, developed by predecessor Chevron, caused their Parkinson’s disease.
“When do you see Johnson & Johnson stop manufacturing Band-Aids” because of generic competition? retorted Leslie LaMacchia of Bell Legal Group.
Earlier this year, Syngenta and Chevron were reported to have confidentially settled the first paraquat-Parkinson’s mass tort case that was scheduled to go to trial in Philadelphia.
Syngenta referred safety questions to its website devoted to paraquat and the media, where the company stresses that “paraquat is safe when used in line with registered label instructions.”
In a statement to WUFT, the company said it maintains a commercial presence for paraquat in select strategic markets “where the product continues to play an important role in agricultural production systems.”
The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Parkinson’s Foundation and numerous other groups have called for a ban on paraquat over neurological and other health concerns. So far, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has continued to allow restricted use on American farms by certified applicators wearing protective gear.
“EPA has not found a clear link between paraquat exposure from labeled uses and adverse health outcomes such as Parkinson’s disease… ” according to the agency, though EPA is currently reassessing given new findings on how the pesticide vapor can move beyond farm fields where it’s applied.
Dr. Sneha Mantri, a movement-disorders specialist at Duke University who serves as chief medical officer for the Parkinson’s Foundation, said when it comes to the "cides," herbicides and pesticides designed to kill living things: "Humans and brain cells are living things, so there’s no reason to think that they’re not going to impact brain health in the same way they impact the weeds or the pests you’re spraying them for."
The EPA’s paraquat information page warns that: "Paraquat is highly toxic. One small sip can be fatal and there is no antidote."
Paraquat is Formally Banned in 74 Countries
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China banned paraquat in 2016, citing a desire to protect public health, including access to a poison commonly used for suicide.
Korea banned it in 2012. Korean researchers found in a followup study that "the paraquat ban immediately decreased the suicide rate … by 46 percent."
Ingestion of pesticides is a common method of suicide worldwide. More than 100,000 people die from it annually, the majority in agriculture-dependent, low-to-middle-income countries.
"We hardly can save the patient," said Dr. Ritadip Halder, an emergency room doctor in a hospital near Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal, about paraquat poisoning.
Halder said he’s handled five to six cases of paraquat poisoning in the past two years. And it’s difficult to keep track of the number of people who have used the herbicide for suicide because a majority of cases are not reported, he said.
Just south of India in Sri Lanka, Gamini Manuweera, the former Registrar of Pesticides, helped lead the country’s new pesticide regulation framework, including a phased ban on paraquat, to address some of the world’s highest suicide rates.
Sri Lanka has seen remarkable success in reducing suicides, according to research, primarily as a result of pesticide policy and especially a ban on paraquat in 2008.
"Paraquat stands out," Manuweera said.
Increasing numbers of other developing nations have also banned the herbicide. Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control formally banned the manufacture, distribution and use of paraquat in that country in 2024 due to concerns over its high toxicity.
The U.S. tightened its paraquat-application regulations in 2016 following concerns about 17 accidental deaths, three of them children, from ingestion, and many severe injuries. Only certified applicators with protective gear can use the herbicide.
Today, the EPA is weighing neurological and other health concerns against the benefits of paraquat for U.S. agriculture. Global scholars concluded in one study that eliminating paraquat could save lives "without reducing agricultural production. Less hazardous and more sustainable alternatives exist."
Brazil, by far the largest country in South America, banned paraquat in 2020, and has continued to emerge as one of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters.