Neurologist James Boyd, M.D., a professor of neurological sciences at the Larner College of Medicine and director of the Binter Center for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders at the University of Vermont Medical Center, says in a VTDigger opinion piece that Vermont has a clear moral and scientific obligation to ban paraquat—an herbicide with biological and epidemiological links to the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s disease occurs when brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical that coordinates movement, gradually fail and die, causing people to experience tremor, slowness, stiffness, and walking difficulty and imbalance. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease that slowly worsens over time. There is no cure.
Parkinson’s is a complex disease. Genetics matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. For decades, researchers have studied how environmental exposures may also contribute. One exposure that has emerged repeatedly is paraquat.
Vermont lawmakers are actively considering legislation to ban the use and sale of paraquat statewide. The primary bill, H.739, unanimously passed the House on March 20, 2026, and is now under review in the Senate Committee on Agriculture. With this bill, Vermont joins a growing number of states considering state-level action in the absence of definitive federal regulation.
Paraquat is a fast-acting herbicide sprayed to kill weeds between orchard rows or before planting field crops. Most of the associated risk occurs during mixing and application, and safer mechanical and alternative herbicide weed-control methods are available.
More than 70 countries have already banned paraquat. The European Union and Brazil have bans because of the science linking paraquat to Parkinson’s, while China banned the toxic chemical “to safeguard people’s life, safety, and health.” Vermont should, too, Dr. Boyd says.
This topic was also covered in the Burlington Free Press, Community News Service, and Vermont Public