Glyphosate Update

Here at Parkinson’s Ireland we have been campaigning alongside Parkinson’s Europe to ban the use of the controversial pesticide glyphosate over the past few weeks. 

A vote took place on the 16^th of November, in which the EU once again failed to reach a majority vote in favour of renewing the glyphosate license. Despite this, the EU Commission plans to proceed with the ten-year license renewal.

Our CEO, Shane O’Brien said: “We are extremely disappointed with this decision. We believe that this decision is not in line with the precautionary principle, where preventative decision-making should take place when there are potential risks to health.

We will continue to call for Glyphosate to be banned. However, our focus also now needs to shift to raising awareness of the dangers associated with glyphosate.

This includes encouraging the public to take safety measures such as using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), should they decide to use products containing glyphosate. 

We will also be advocating for further research into the link between glyphosate and PD. In that regard, it should be noted that we are currently supporting UCC in its ongoing research project regarding exposure to pesticides and Parkinson’s Disease.”

A positive of this campaign is that the dangers of glyphosate have been highlighted to a wider audience which will hopefully result in people being more cautious.