shed new light on how multinational chemical giant Syngenta worked to conceal the link between its popular pesticide paraquat and Parkinson's disease.
According to the internal documents, Syngenta sought to"create an international scientific consensus against the hypothesis that paraquat is a risk factor for Parkinson's disease," in part by launching what company officials called a"SWAT team" to counter research that could threaten the corporation's"freedom to sell" the pesticide.
"It looks like the paraquat maker has adopted nearly every strategy we outlined in our book about bending science," Thomas McGarity, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency legal adviser and co-author of the 2008 book"Science matters. We have to be able to depend on science," McGarity added."When it is perverted, when it is manipulated, then we get bad results. And one result is that pesticides that cause terrible things like Parkinson's remain on the market.
;“The @Syngenta files expose a web of deception, including undisclosed collaborations, misleading regulators, and manipulating scientific reports. \n\nLearn how the chemical giant has protected its toxic weed killer, paraquat. ;⤵️\n\nvia @thenewledenews/@guardian\nhttps://t.co/qMkAj1uIPo;”