In a season of new beginnings

A need to address what's driving life-altering brain diseases

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I’ve just landed in Washington, DC, where the city is buzzing with celebration: Sunday is commencement day for George Washington University students. The new graduates and their families can be seen cavorting in parks and parading down city sidewalks, headed into the bright futures and new beginnings they’ve been promised.

I’m not here for a party, sadly. My journey here from my home in Kansas is much less celebratory. On Monday I will attend (and participate in) a symposium focused on examining “the influence of environmental toxicants on brain disorders.”

The food we eat, the water we drink and the very air we breathe include toxins that science warns us are linked to an array of brain disorders from autism and intellectual disabilities in children to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease in seniors.

The symposium website states this dark data point: “Brain diseases are the world’s leading source of disability, even more than cancer, heart disease, or infectious conditions. Many of them are man-made… these disabling and deadly conditions are also preventable.”

One brain-harming chemical that I’ve written about at length is the herbicide paraquat, used widely by farmers for its efficacy at wiping out weeds, but a substance also known to be so incredibly toxic that ingesting a teaspoon of it can kill quickly. Chronic exposure to paraquat has notably been linked to Parkinson’s disease in numerous studies over many decades.

Roughly 60,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with Parkinson’s and in recent years it has been ranked among the top 15 causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, the death rate from Parkinson’s has climbed more than 60% in the United States over the past two decades, according to research. 

Many countries have banned paraquat, though not the US. Some California lawmakers are now trying to pass a state ban. Last week, The New Lede reported that state lawmakers moved a step closer to banning the controversial weed killing chemical after a key state California legislative committee on Thursday allowed the measure to proceed.

The ban would take effect Jan. 1, 2026, outlawing the “use, manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale in commerce” of any pesticide product that contains paraquat. The bill provides for a process that allows state regulators to reevaluate paraquat and potentially reapprove it with or without new restrictions.

Supporters face a steep uphill climb to actually see the measure become law. A majority of 80 Assembly members need to vote in favor of the bill by Friday, May 24 in order for it to stay alive and move to the state Senate for consideration.

Meanwhile, the US Environmental Protection Agency maintains that there is not enough evidence to truly link the chemical to the disease. We’ve heard that before. It was the same line employed by the EPA for years regarding the insecticide chlorpyrifos until the EPA reversed itself, determining ultimately, that the chemical is - as scientists warned - a serious threat to the brain development of children.

Paraquat is only one of many substances associated with the erosion of our brain health. Monday’s symposium will address it, but also the broad range of toxins science shows us are of concern.

I am here because I have my own young and hopeful new graduate. And in this season of graduations, as our young adults take their place in the world and begin to build their lives and families, we owe it to them to take these threats to our health seriously, and to seek the changes that can help them have that bright future they are looking for.