06
Nov
Report on Weed Killer Paraquat Identifies True Hazard Costs from Manufacturing to Use
(Beyond Pesticides, November 6, 2025) The report, Designed to Kill: Who Profits from Paraquat, and accompanying interactive storymap, unpacks the supply chain of the infamous herbicide paraquat and underscores the true costs of pesticide products, from manufacturing to use in the fields. This report is part of a larger initiative, the Pesticide Mapping Project—“a collaborative research series that illustrates the health and climate harms of pesticides across their toxic lifecycle: including fossil fuel extraction, manufacturing, international trade, and application on vast areas of U.S. land.â€
Top Highlights
This report highlights, among other notable points, “that every stage of the paraquat supply chain—which spans the globe—emits greenhouse gases and toxic air pollutants.†With SinoChem as the lead producer and player in the paraquat market, the Chinese government-owned pesticide company’s supply chain “includes fossil fuel extraction in Equatorial Guinea and Saudi Arabia, chemical manufacturing in India, Germany, and the United Kingdom, international chemical shipping, and final formulation and distribution in the United States.â€
Paraquat is not currently manufactured in the U.S., accounting for imports of “between 40 and 156 million pounds of paraquat each year, according to the last eight years of pesticide import records available from the private database.†Despite the publicity surrounding “Making America Healthy Again,†the Trump administration exempted China from “reciprocal†tariffs on paraquat dichloride imports in April 2025, according to the report.
The authors note “a large discrepancy†in U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data on paraquat use in 2018, “between the amount of paraquat the U.S. imported in 2018 (approximately 95 million [pounds]) and the amount of paraquat USGS estimates were used on agricultural lands in 2018 (17 million [pounds]).†Several rationales could explain this phenomenon:
- “USGS estimates of paraquat use on agricultural lands are too conservative;
- substantial quantities of paraquat are applied each year on non-agricultural lands such as rights of way, and/or;
- that substantial quantities of imported paraquat are being stored in U.S. warehouses.â€
The rise in demand for paraquat stems from an issue endemic to synthetic pest management—pest resistance to herbicides. The growth of “superweeds,†after decades of spraying controversial herbicides like glyphosate, has led to corporations like Syngenta (which sells paraquat under the trade name Gramoxone) framing their product as “a tool for environmental sustainability†because, it says, “it enables farmers to avoid tilling weeds and disrupting soil life.â€
The authors explain the global agrochemicals industry as being structured like an oligopoly—meaning that just four companies (Corteva, BASF, Bayer, and Syngenta) account for “more than 62 percent of global agrochemical sales in 2020.†When SinoChem merged with fellow state-owned company Chem China, the former already owned “Syngenta pesticide manufacturing and formulation facilities in the U.K. and U.S. and continues to operate them under the name Syngenta.â€
Fossil fuel extraction from reserves in Equatorial Guinea and Saudi Arabia is “used to produce the chemical building blocks of paraquat.†The main ingredients for paraquat include methyl chloride (which is derived from methanol) and pyridine.
Atlantic Methanol Production Company (AMPCO) produces methanol, which is then exported to Port Rotterdam, Netherlands, by Solvadis—a chemical distribution company. Nobian, a chemical manufacturing company, accepts the methanol in Frankfurt, Germany, once it arrives from its journey on the Rhine River and then processes the material into methyl chloride. The authors of the report highlight data on chlorine compounds from National Center for Biotechnology Information and a peer-reviewed study (here and here) stating the severe occupational health and public safety consequences of these chemicals, including its ability to “harm the nervous system and cause convulsions and coma†and that “[f]acilities that produce or store mass quantities of chlorine pose a high disaster potential, because chlorine gas is an explosive and potentially fatal respiratory toxin.â€
Pyridine, meanwhile, begins with fossil fuel extraction from shale gas fields supplied by Saudi Aramco. It is important to note that 70 percent of the fossil gas that is eventually processed into pyridine is methane; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that methane has a global warming potential (GWP) of 27 to 30 over 100 years (or 30 times more potent than carbon)—with “the larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO2 over that time period.â€
The methane is processed into methanol by Sahara International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) in Saudi Arabia. Sipchem then transports methanol to Gajraula, India, where “Pyridine is synthesized through a reaction between formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and ammonia†at the Jubilant Ingrevia facility. The authors cite a peer-reviewed study and publicly available data (here and here) linking pyridine exposure to “skin irritation, eye and throat burns, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness…†and “Long-term exposure to pyridine can also damage the kidneys and affect brain function,” respectively.
Pyridine is then transported to the UK, where it is combined with methyl chloride at the Syngenta Huddersfield Manufacturing Center. Gramoxone (paraquat) is then transported to the Port of New Orleans, U.S., where “Sinochem/Syngenta has exported more than 1,000 shipments of paraquat from Huddersfield to Louisiana since 2017, collectively valued at more than $642 million USD.†This system is profitable because “SinoChem holds Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) privileges for importing paraquat dichloride into Louisiana.†FTZ privileges, as the authors describe, “allow companies to lower, defer or avoid taxes and tariffs on chemicals, lowering costs and increasing profit margins.†This raises the economic advantage that policymakers give to petrochemicals, as opposed to creating the conditions for FTZ privileges for organic-compliant inputs.
The Syngenta agrochemical facility in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, “formulates and packages Gramoxone and more than a dozen other herbicides for sale.†This area is located squarely in Cancer Alley, home to “about 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations†that contribute to cumulative toxic exposure across multiple classes of chemicals. Simultaneously, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2022 identified the Syngenta facility in St. Gabriel “for heightened risk of a chemical disaster” since communities living in proximity face significant damage from “flooding, storm surges, and category 4 and 5 hurricanes.†The facility “stores large quantities of ammonia, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, and hydrocyanic acid on an industrial campus in the direct path of frequent hurricanes.â€
In addition, the authors report, “The total annual carbon emissions of Syngenta Group, which includes supply chain emissions of its upstream manufacturing sites, purchased energy and goods, and chemical transportation, are 14.7 million tons [as of 2024].â€
The report addresses the consequences of occupational exposure to petrochemical pesticides. The health harms are exacerbated by broken links in the social safety net, resulting in a harm multiplier effect.
“Farmworkers who develop serious conditions after working with pesticides frequently face barriers to healthcare. It is estimated that nearly half of farmworkers lack health insurance, preventing many from receiving a diagnosis and treatment,†according to the report. The authors continue: “And farmworkers face other barriers to care, such as getting approved time off from work without risking job loss, finding transportation to clinics, and navigating the complex U.S. medical system to get appointments.â€
Farmworker Statements
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas interviewed farmworker community members on the impacts of likely paraquat exposure, which led to numerous testimonies included in the final report highlighting the disproportionate risks of this harmful chemical and its real-world consequences:
“My cousin, who is 55 years old, was a pesticide applicator for about 25-30 years on farms in New York, Florida, and maybe other states, too. During the time that he was a farmworker, his primary job was to apply paraquat with a tractor. About 13 years ago, he started having seizures and his hands would shake a lot. He was soon after diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which his doctor confirmed was very likely caused by exposure to paraquat while he was a farmworker. I don’t know how long he has actually had Parkinson’s because he began feeling ill before he was diagnosed, but the past 13 years have been very difficult for him and our family.â€
![Image credit: [Mahmut yilmaz from Pexels] via Canva.com](https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DN-11.6.25-1.jpg)
“At one point, he was a pesticide applicator and I specifically remember he would wear white jumpsuits, at the time he was probably around 30 years old. We knew he worked with chemicals that could be unsafe to us and he took precautions to make sure we didn’t come in contact with the chemicals. I knew that we couldn’t hug him when he picked us up after work, he never wore his jumpsuit in the home and would leave it outside the house. We also washed our clothes separately. My dad started showing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease over several years, starting with his nervous system. It started with his nerves and trembling hands and then he began to stutter. We started taking him to the doctor and he was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. I don’t remember for how long he had symptoms before he was diagnosed but I do remember how hard it was for my dad.â€
The full statements from impacted families can be read on pages 2-9 (pdf pages 6 –13) of the report.
Previous Coverage
“Germany and European Union countries ban all uses of paraquat, but supply one of paraquat’s primary building block chemicals, methyl chloride, to the UK, where paraquat is manufactured,†say the authors in the report, highlighting the double standards and environmental injustice facing communities in Global Majority nations like Equatorial Guinea.
Communities and farmers continue to speak up across the globe and protest the importation of pesticides banned in the European Union, the U.S., and other countries. Organized by the Women on Farms Project, farmworkers in Paarl, South Africa, took to the streets on Friday, September 8, 2023, demanding an end to the indiscriminate importation and use of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides containing substances prohibited by the European Union (EU). This protest is part of a broader global trend of outcry against systemic issues of environmental racism that disproportionately burden communities with environmental and health risks. (See Daily News here.) BBC’s (British Broadcasting Corporation’s) recent coverage of Di-bromochloropropane (DBCP) exposures and impacts on banana plantation workers in multiple Latin American countries. A significant number of those male workers became sterile, and many charge that their exposures to DBCP in the 1970s were responsible. A 1979 ban on uses of DBCP on the U.S. mainland by the EPA did not immediately stop manufacturers from exporting the toxic insecticide to (primarily) Central American countries, nor did it stop its use in U.S. fruit corporations. (See Daily News here.)
In 2020, Unearthed, a Greenpeace UK journalism arm, and Public Eye, a Swiss NGO (non-governmental organization) that investigates human rights abuses by Swiss companies, revealed that companies in the UK, as well as in some European Union (EU) countries, are exporting massive amounts of pesticides — banned in their own jurisdictions — to poorer countries. More than 89,000 (U.S.) tons of such pesticides were exported in 2018, largely to countries where toxic pesticide use poses the greatest risks. The UK has been the largest exporter (15,000+ tons, or 40% of the total in 2018); other significant exporters include the Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. (See Daily News here.)
A study in Environmental Science and Technology Letters, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the first to find halogenated organic compounds (HOCs) in deep ocean sediment and biota off the coast of California. The test area, known as the Southern California Bight (SCB), is home to historic offshore DDT waste dumping, with part of the SCB designated as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site. 49 HOCs were detected in the sediment and biota, many of which are DDT-related and not previously monitored. The presence of these “unmonitored compounds can significantly contribute to the contaminant body burden across a range of marine taxa,†the study states, which leads to impacts on critical food webs and biodiversity. While this study is the first to specifically analyze previously overlooked DDT+ compounds, the results are nothing new. (See Daily News here.)
Call to Action
Taking action is an antidote to despair. If you do not know where to begin, consider subscribing to Action of the Week and Weekly News Updates to learn more about how to engage in advocacy.
If you are interested in going to the next level, consider signing up to become a Parks for a Sustainable Future advocate and learn how to support your community to expand organic land management ordinances to public green spaces. Just because federal policy is not feasible at the moment does not mean your city council or state legislature is not capable of transformative change.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Coming Clean Network, and Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network
