Agricultural authorities are considering a possible ban or tighter controls on the importation and use of paraquat, the highly toxic weedkiller known by the trade name Gramoxone – more than 40 years after concerns were first raised about its potential harm to human health, Barbados TODAY can reveal exclusively.

The review follows a growing number of countries moving to phase out the chemical, with the American state of California the latest, amid studies increasingly associating it with Parkinson’s disease and other health problems.

Paraquat has long been regarded as one of the world’s most hazardous pesticides. It was included in Pesticide Action Network International’s “Dirty Dozen” campaign, launched in 1985, which called for strict controls, bans and eventual elimination of 12 exceptionally dangerous pesticides. By the early 1990s, several countries had already banned or severely restricted paraquat because of its extreme acute toxicity and record of fatal poisonings.