A class action lawsuit was filed this week against agrochemical giant Syngenta, on behalf of all Quebecers diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after repeated exposure to the pesticide Gramoxone.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The originating application was filed Monday in the Superior Court, in the district of Saint-Hyacinthe. At the end of July, a judge had accepted the request for authorization to exercise this collective action, thus giving the green light to the filing of the lawsuit.
Gramoxone is the trade name of an herbicide with the active ingredient paraquat. It was licensed for use in Canada in 1963.
“Paraquat is the most acutely toxic herbicide to have been marketed in the past 60 years,” reads the 40-page appeal.
The defendants [Syngenta et ses filiales] knew or should have known that exposure to Gramoxone could cause or be associated with Parkinson’s disease […] thus creating a dangerous and unreasonable risk for those who have been exposed to it.
Excerpt from the class action
The group representative is Jean-François Lebeau. He was exposed to the substance from 1974 to 1985, while helping in the orchard belonging to his in-laws in Saint-Paul-d’Abbotsford. At least five times a year, he participated in the preparation of the mixture and the spraying of the product. At the age of 66, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, an incurable neurodegenerative disease.
The appeal emphasizes that the plaintiff has no family history of the disease and that he underwent a genetic analysis to detect the most common risks of the disease, which proved to be negative.
Mr. Lebeau’s medical records were reviewed by a “prominent” neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s disease, Dr.r Timothy Greenamyre. “The D.r Greenamyre has concluded that it is more likely than not that exposure to this product caused plaintiff Lebeau’s illness,” reads the appeal.
The statement of claim indicates that a person can be exposed by inhaling airborne particles after spraying, by inadvertently ingesting soil, dust or chemical residues, or by skin contact. .
“Each of these routes of exposure can lead to systemic, ie, blood system toxicity, and once in the bloodstream, paraquat enters the brain,” it says.
Punitive damages claimed
The action also targets any Quebecer who is the spouse, father, mother, child, brother, sister or caregiver who suffers or has suffered harm because that person has developed Parkinson’s disease. It is Mr. Lebeau’s spouse, Andrée Tremblay, who is the representative of this second group targeted by the class action.
The plaintiffs are the caregivers of the adult son of Mrs.me Tremblay, who has trisomy 21. “The applicant Lebeau can no longer assist with certain physical maneuvers necessary for this role”, underlines the request.
Mr. Lebeau and M.me Tremblay are represented by the firm Siskinds Desmeules. They are asking the court to order Syngenta to pay the members of the group an “amount to be determined” in compensation for the bodily, moral and material damages suffered and which they will continue to suffer. They are also claiming an “amount to be determined” in punitive damages.
Since 2021, Parkinson’s has been recognized by the Government of Quebec as an occupational disease for farmers, agronomists and pesticide applicators who have been exposed to pesticides for more than ten years. This has also been the case in France since 2012 and in Sweden since 2017.
According to Health Canada, there are no longer any products registered in Canada that contain paraquat.
“In March 2022, registration of the product containing paraquat was voluntarily discontinued by the Canadian manufacturer,” spokesperson Mark Johnson said in an emailed statement.
Neither Syngenta spokeswoman Christina Stroud nor the three McCarthy Tétrault lawyers representing the company responded to our emails.
Roundup in the dock
Paraquat is not the first pesticide to find itself in the dock. The herbicide glyphosate, marketed under the name Roundup by Monsanto-Bayer, is also the subject of several class action lawsuits in Canada. In May 2019, a woman who suffered from stage 4 cancer filed a request for authorization of class action in Quebec against Monsanto. She claimed the sum of 10 million in punitive damages for all Quebecers exposed to Roundup since 1976, who were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In December 2020, however, the proceedings in this case were temporarily suspended, as the Ontario Superior Court is already seized of a “national scope” claim with the same basis and which includes residents of Quebec.