So the U.S. is still using 11-17 lbs/yr despite warnings and bans really since 1986, a re-authorization in 2021 by the EPA, and known elevated risk near use sites, which corporations have fought against claiming "no definitive proof". So if the U.S. allows its use "as directed", who can be legally accountable for all this?

It's a herbicide, not a pesticide. I clicked the article because I was surprised that any current pesticides are that harmful to humans.

Pesticides are, generally, safe to humans. Herbicides are, generally, not at all safe to humans. Roundup is probably the most safe outside of per-emergents like corn husks or whatever, but it's not a free ride either.

    > "Pesticides are, generally, safe to humans."

I was casually chatting with my uncle who is a doctor, he says something along the lines that if a chemical can kill a rat or a mosquito, to assume it won't do any damage to humans is kind of hilarious.

Of course humans who inhale this thing in small quantities won't die, but you can be sure they will kill some tissues that they go into. Now comes another problem of regular exposure, and these chemicals having an entry, but no exit path. That just means there are tissues, that are likely dying out every time there is a exposure.

Again none of this might kill you at the first exposure, but if there are enough dead tissues, there sure is likely to be things like Parkinson's or may be even diabetes.

Im guessing combined with this, if you already some bad genetics it could cause issues like these.

I looked up this pesticide. It is banned in EU. Not exactly surprising.

Paraquat is something that can cause acute toxicity to the point of death.

Glyphosate is a teddy bear by comparison.

Many chemicals that cause acute toxicity at high doses also have poorly studied chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity issues, either from bioaccumulation or from cumulative low-grade damage. These issues are much less well-studied than chronic effects of less harmful chemicals, specifically because acute toxicity and attempts to avoid it makes objective testing difficult.

propublica.org has endless great articles on this and other horrors in the US

but if we aren't going to change a damn thing with daily mass shooting we sure aren't going to fix poisoning the environment, fracking is 100x worse than this and "sacrifice zones" are a real thing

follow the money, sue before current administration makes it illegal to sue

https://www.propublica.org/series/sacrifice-zones

"With evidence of its harms stacking up, it’s already been banned in dozens of countries all over the world, including the United Kingdom and China, where it’s made. Yet last year, its manufacturer Syngenta, a subsidiary of a company owned by the Chinese government, continued selling paraquat in the United States and other nations that haven’t banned it."

These farmers reap the benefits using pesticides and then sue so they get double pay. They knew what they were getting. Who would have thunk chemicals cause disease. And who do the consumers sue having eaten all this pesticide laden produce for all these years?

I just read another article about this, but the affected group is military from Camp Legume. The water in Legume was contaminated, and its actually given a control group test for the incidence of Parkinson’s with Camp Pendleton, where the water was not contaminated.

Spoiler: it looks like the farmers are right

https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-thought-parkinsons-wa...

Amazing thing is TCE was banned by the Biden EPA in 2024 and Trump’s EPA stopped its ban.