Every company that sold paraquat in California has canceled its state registration, marking the beginning of a phase-out of one of the state's most heavily used herbicides, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation announced. The final registrant withdrew its product on August 6, and the department confirmed the full set of cancellations four days later.
California is the largest user of paraquat in the country, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, and its use is concentrated. More than three-quarters of the state total is applied in eight San Joaquin Valley counties, farm regions around Fresno, Bakersfield, and Visalia, where a large share of residents live in or near agricultural communities. Those households and the licensed applicators who handle the product are the first to be reached by this decision.
