kind of beautiful da-da-da-dum ♪ ♪ da-da-da-dum da-da-da-dum da-da-da-dum ♪ ♪ [ cheers and applause ] tonight, danger in the fields? a chemical so toxic it can kill with a single sip. banned in 50 countries, including where it's manufactured. but used here in the united states. >> we as americans should be

outraged by this. >> byron: a year and a half long abc news investigation into the weed killer paraquat, widely used on farms across the country. examining its possible link to parkinson's disease. >> they should have told us the consequences, and they didn't. that just burns me to a crisp. >> byron: thousands of farmers saying they got sick after using it. they and their families sounding the alarm. >> all the generations that are coming up afterwards need to know. >> byron: now suing the manufacturer and a former distributor. paraquat's makers denying any link to parkinson's, maintaining it's okay to use if safety precautions are taken. some top american scientists saying there's reason for concern. >> we saw things that were convincing to us that paraquat could indeed be a risk factor for parkinson's disease. >> byron: now the michael j. fox foundation suing the epa and demanding answers. why is paraquat still used in the u.s.?

this special edition of "nightline," "danger in the fields," will be right back. ♪then you take me by the hand♪ ♪i feel better again♪ ♪oh i feel better now♪ looking to save big on holiday shopping? xfinity mobile has you covered. don't miss your chance to get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan, now through the end of the year. and during our black friday sale, you can also get up to $800 off the latest 5g phones.

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them to develop parkinson's disease. the michael j. fox foundation stepping in, asking the epa to ban the chemical in the u.s. as many other countries have already done. as questions about its safety continue to swirl. a year and a half long abc news investigation, here's abc's alex presha. >> reporter: in this moment -- >> and the winner is michael j. fox. >> reporter: winning a golden globe for the best actor in comedy, michael j. fox looked like he was on top of the world. >> suffice to say i was not expecting this. >> reporter: but what the rest of the world didn't know was that michael was hiding a big secret. seven years earlier at 29 years old, michael had been diagnosed with early onset parkinson's disease, a central nervous system disorder which attacks the part of the brain that controls movement, of which there's no known cure. >> the '60s are over, dad. >> reporter: it was a shocking twist to the story of an actor who had first captured our hearts as alex keaton on "family

ties." >> hi, sorry i had to answer the door myself, the butler's off tonight. >> reporter: as marty mcfly in the "back to the future" trilogy. >> huh telling me you built a time machine -- our a delorean? >> reporter: he was at the top of his career, making this reveal all the more shocking. >> i'd hidden my symptoms and struggles very well. the time for quietly soldiering on is through. the war against parkinson is a winnable war, and i have resolved to play a role in that victory. >> reporter: since then, michael help found the michael j. fox foundation, an organization dedicated to research around parkinson's, which 90,000 people in the u.s. are diagnosed every year. his foundation represented by earth justice, an environmental law firm, recently sued the epa for their decision to continue to allow an herbicide known as paraquat which they allege causes park kin kin sons disease to be used in the u.s. fox has never blamed paraquat

for his disease, but his organization has been outspoken about environmental factors they believe may have increased the risk of parkinson's, including paraquat. >> the michael j. fox foundation wanted to know why this chemical associated with such severe harms was still being approved and used in the united states. >> reporter: paraquat is so poisonous that it needs a license to be used. the epa warns that one small sip can kill, with no known antidote. during training you're told to wear proper protective equipment, including respirators, when handling it. it's sprayed widely across the united states and some other parts of the world because of how effective it is at killing weeds. farmers like paraquat in part because it can kill weeds that have developed resistance to other herbicides. one of those farmers was clayton tohokey. >> i never thought i'd spray something that hurt anybody. >> you didn't know a spray was going to affect your health.

>> reporter: clayton lives just outside of milbank, south dakota. he comes from a family of farmers and for a time lived to his beloved farm with his wife, denise. one day he and denise began to notice his tremors. >> hands, first thing most people notice. >> we both noticed it in church because the bulletin would shake. >> reporter: this uncontrollable shaking got progressively worse. prompting them to see a doctor. >> his regular doctor suggested a neurologist. so then that's when we -- he was diagnosed. >> reporter: clayton's diagnosis was parkinson's disease. which he believed he got from frequently using paraquat on his farm for years. his life is now devoted to doing all that he can to stall symptoms. >> and we're done. >> this man was so independent, we both had our own careers and his independence has been taken

from him. which is unfair. >> reporter: clayton and his family are suing the two companies that he believes knew or should have known that paraquat could cause severe neurological injuries. he's one of more than 4,000 people, many of them farmers, who have filed lawsuits in a multi-district litigation against the manufacturer, a company called syngenta, that has sold at least $1 billion worth of paraquat, as well as chevron, which distributed paraquat exclusively in the u.s. from 1966 until 1986, when it stopped selling it here. but syngenta continued. >> any time chemical is applied to the fields that they have to use, they should know what's going to happen. all the generations that are coming up afterwards need to know. >> reporter: the plaintiffs say there's a lot of science to back their claims. syngenta says scientific evidence simply does not support a causal link between paraquat and parkinson's disease.

they say as long as farmers follow the label, take the proper precautionary measures, and get the right training, paraquat is safe to use. >> we concede that used carefully and appropriately, it is safe for operators. >> reporter: some of the nation's top scientists remain concerned. >> we saw things that convincing to us that paraquat could be a risk factor for parkinson's disease. >> reporter: dr. corey shlekton has done studies on how toxins affect the brains of mice. her studies suggest a link between paraquat and paralysis. >> we saw a loss of dopamine neurons, which is what is seen in human parkinson's disease. since then, other people have gone on and showed very similar kinds of effects. >> reporter: syngenta currently sells paraquat in five countries. the united states, australia, new zealand, japan, and indonesian indonesia.

at least 51 other countries have banned it, many citing extreme toxicity as the reason for the ban. while countries like brazil and members of the european union also express concern over the possible risk for parkinson's disease. peter flowers is one of the attorneys suing syngenta. >> syngenta's marketing about helping farmers is the core of its business is a joke. syngenta's marketing is for syngenta, its shareholders. it's not for helping farmers. because this isn't helping farmers, this is hurting farmers. >> reporter: in fact, the two countries where the product is produced -- the uk and china -- have banned its domestic use. even as a state-owned chinese chemical company acquired syngenta in a record $43 billion deal in 2017, touted in this video. >> the fact that the chinese government essentially owns syngenta, but doesn't use it in their own country, but they continue to sell it here? that's ridiculous. we as americans should be outraged by this. >> reporter: part of the outrage, flowers claims, is that

both companies did not reveal critical information about paraquat to its users, including questions some of their own scientists and executives were aware of for decades. >> there has been smoke about paraquat causing parkinson's disease since the late '80s and '90s. that also is driven somewhat by what syngenta internally knows or doesn't know and discloses to the scientific community. >> reporter: some of this came to light in a 2017 lawsuit after multiple people with parkinson's sued syngenta and chevron, settled for over $187 million for claims they say have no merit. carrie gillam is the managing editor for "the new lead," an environmental news website supported by the environmental working group and a contributing reporter for "the guardian." she's been groundbreaking reports on the possible dangers of round-up and herbicide made by the chemical giant monsanto. she said one day a box of chevron and syngenta documents showed up at her home out of the blue.

at what point did you realize what you were thumbing through? -- immediately. the documents that showed up on my doorstep include memos, scientific studies, a real treasure trove of internal information from chevron and syngenta. >> you were looking at internal memos that raised red flags decades ago? >> decades ago. decades ago. >> reporter: as early as 1974. in the documents, chevron executives are aware that state officials are expressing concerns about paraquat's possible long-term chronic effects on workers. what continuous exposure can do to workers is a question they say they're unable to properly respond to at this time. in a meeting they decide to add warnings to their label, in part because a lawyer believes that there is evidence that paraquat could cause industrial injury and that chevron could face suits totaling millions of dollars. specific instructions on protective clothing, the lawyer argues, can provide a good basis to resist lawsuits.

>> they were talking about the chronic effects possibly causing them legal problems back in the 1970s. >> reporter: the company agrees to add language advising users to wear goggles and an approved mask or respirator capable of filtering spray mist if there was a risk of accidental exposure. but plaintiffs say paraquat's products were still not accompanied by proper warnings regarding its possible health effects, including developing parkinson's disease as a result of exposure. >> if we that you what we know now, we'd have never used it. but we didn't know the side effects, the aftereffect of it. >> reporter: frank garcia and wife maria began spraying paraquat on their small family farm in arizona. paraquat had just been restricted, and frank says he got certified to use it. >> you had to take that class to get a number in order to buy it. so that was about it. a. >> you've ever been to a government class? i'll just leave it at that.

>> reporter: frank's wife maria now has parkinson's disease. she rely on this her entire family for around-the-clock care. frank says it was never made clear to him there were questions about paraquat's possible long-term effects. he doesn't remember if he and maria wore respirators while applying it. >> we knew it was toxic if you drank it. it says, do not swallow. they said, be careful around, wash your hands. that was about it. >> push up those legs. >> reporter: while the garcias used paraquat for a number of years in 1985 a chevron internal memo flagged a big concern, an article about how pesticides including paraquat may be implicated as a cause for parkinson's disease. "we can hope that another chemical or cause will explain the correlation," the memo says, "and i trust chevron is watching this closely and perhaps doing a little testing for the sake of its customers and stockholders."

>> they talked about potentially having a legacy of a parkinson's disease, much like asbestos was a legacy problem for another company. >> they compared it to asbestos? >> they did. >> reporter: the next year, chevron stopped selling paraquat completely. chevron telling abc news they regularly reviewed studies regarding the safety of paraquat and none of them showed a causal link. they say they stopped selling paraquat for commercial reasons, not because of health concerns. meanwhile, syngenta continued selling paraquat. a 1985 internal memo to management saying they depended on it as a major product and would do whatever possible to defend it. >> so they wanted to develop sort of a counterattack, a counter-strategy. they talk about developing scientific studies that they can use in their defense of paraquat. they talk about influencing strategies with regulators. >> reporter: gillam says that

strategy could be seen when the epa was considering dr. deborah corey shlecta, whose research showed a possible link between paraquat and parkinson's, for an advisory panel in 1985 with syngenta internal emails showing they don't want her on the panel and asking what action can be taken. "she's unwilling to enter into objective scientific debate with industry regarding their data," a position they told us they continue to stand by. >> you can see how they developed this plan that they want to convince the epa to kick her off or to not appoint her. >> not surprised. it's consistent with operations, typical operations, that they might undertake to prevent somebody from being on a committee that would make decisions with respect to their chemical. >> reporter: coming up, with so many questions and so much controversy, why does the epa continue to allow paraquat to be

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accused of having too close ties with the very industry they're supposed to monitor, with one study finding that the epa approved pesticide products at a rate of 94% between 2017 and 2018. >> a charitable way to explain it that is they've had a hard time keeping up with the tens of thousands of chemicals that have been rolled out in the last several decades. and they struggle, i think, to keep up with things. >> reporter: the epa told abc that their process for pesticide registration is widely considered the most sophisticated and scientifically robust in the world. >> it's, you know, said to be by many, and there's a very cozy relationship between these large companies and the epa. and you see a bit of a revolving door. you see people going back and forth between industry and the epa. >> you feel there's a conflict? >> certainly seems to be a conflict. >> reporter: the epa said there was no improper influence from the pesticide industry. over the paraquat interim decision.

they said that their employees meet and exceed federal ethical requirements to ensure that all decisions are made impartially with no improper influence. >> you have this vast disconnect where you have an agency that was set up to protect public health, and yet time and time again, you see the approval of pesticides that just leave farm workers and agricultural communities and others facing severe risks. >> reporter: syngenta told abc news that despite decades of investigation, no scientists or doctor has ever concluded in a peer reviewed publication that paraquat cause parkinson's. but many in the scientific community believe there is consensus that there is an association. >> i think the data is almost can be described as overwhelming. there are a number of human epidemiological studies that have found these associations. they come from different countries, different cohorts, which gives them further credibility. the animal data is equally strong and supportive. >> syngenta is doing its best to

try and forestall domestic regulation by highlighting uncertainties or by trying to question the science. and i think that here, if you look at the entire body of evidence, there's really only one conclusion that can be reached. >> reporter: the epa announced last year it would reconsider its decision. it told abc news that it could not comment on ongoing litigation. >> now epa has a chance to go back, to fix the mistakes that it made during the prior risk evaluation. to reject syngenta's interference. and to provide the protections the law requires. and we're waiting to see whether epa lives up to that. >> did you, you and dad, dance every dance? i remember you saying that you would dance almost every dance. how does it make you feel that you can't do that anymore? >> it makes me sad.

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