Farmers fear this weedkiller made them sick. Why hasn't Australia banned it?
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What is the link between Parkinson's disease and farming communities in Australia?
I was born and bred on this property. I'm 68 years old. I run sheep and I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease roughly three years ago.
Parkinson's is the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world. By the time patients come to Professor Wesley Thever-Tharsen, a specialist in Parkinson's, many are already dealing with symptoms that have changed their lives.
I've got the classical movement problems, slowness, stiffness, tremor. gait problems, falls sometimes, cognitive issues as well.
But in some Australian farming communities, the question isn't just what Parkinson's does, it's why so many seem to be getting it.
There's four guys around here and we've all got it and we all got it about the same time. I mean, what was it, sunspots on the sun or...
There is a lot of Parkinson's in this family. David's father and his uncle both had it. His brother-in-law has it. It's really very, very prevalent in this community.
For years now, some farmers have been drawing a link to Paraquat, a powerful weed killer.
As a teenager, I waved a flag for an aeroplane to spray pegs with Paraquat, and I can recall people blowing out nozzles with their mouth. Wearing gloves was for pansies. If you're blowing the chemical up on your face all the time you're out spraying, you'd be saturated and you'd stay in those clothes all day. the chemical companies have got a bit to answer for.
And while it's already banned in over 60 countries, including the UK and China, it's still used widely on Australian farms. This month, the chemical regulator is expected to make a final decision on whether it can keep being used here, after a review that's been going since 1997. Professor Thebertharsen is one of about 50 neurologists who made submissions to that review, calling for it to be banned. But he says the regulator has ignored them, as well as some of the strongest evidence linking Paraquat to Parkinson's.
These reflect the peak scientific minds who know about Parkinson's disease wrote to the regulator close to two years ago. And as far as I know, there's been no engagement at all. I haven't heard anything. I've spoken to others. They've heard nothing.
I'm Daniel James and you're listening to 7am. today Professor Wesley Thevitharsen on the farmers who fear Paraquat made them sick and whether Australia's chemical regulator is listening. It's Friday, June 19th. Wesley, you said farmers are overrepresented amongst the patients you see. Tell me about that. What are you seeing from them?
Well, yes, I see a lot of farmers as patients. And this literature goes back to when I was a medical student. We've long known that a childhood upbringing is an increased risk. It's increasingly understood that the role of pesticides in that risk is being understood better. And even in Victoria, we have quite good evidence that there tends to be a strong clustering of the diagnosis in farming communities.
And you believe that one pesticide in particular, paraquat, could be to blame. Where does that concern come from?
Yeah, well, certainly the evidence is by far the greatest for paraquat causing Parkinson's disease amongst all the pesticides.
Even as there's widespread agreement about its toxicity, for years, some of the world's leading scientists have also published studies saying that pesticides like paraquat can also lead to an elevated risk of developing Parkinson's.
And look, multiple research groups from around the world are looking at different data sets who are independent of one another, have found using what we call epidemiological studies that Parkinson's disease, the risk is increased by exposure to Paraquan. There's clear-cut epidemiology showing the exact use of pesticides in terms of how many pounds per acre, which specific areas got treated with what pesticides and what the incidence of Parkinson's disease is that correlates with that. That is also coupled with viable biological mechanisms because we know, for example, that Paraquat can alter the shape of a protein called alpha-synuclein And what happens is that alpha-synuclein, once it's changed in shape, it actually can spread throughout the brain from entry in the nose and from entry in the gut.
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