The B.C. Supreme Court has certified a class-action lawsuit against global agriculture firm Syngenta over claims that its herbicide products cause Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
A decision released online this week says the case was filed in B.C. in August 2022, alleging the Switzerland-based firm鈥檚 family of herbicide products, marketed as Gramoxone, causes Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
The ruling says the proposed class members include anyone diagnosed with the condition after handling Gramoxone products any time after July 1, 1963.
The original representative plaintiff Wayne Gionet died last August, and the ruling says he claimed to have developed Parkinson鈥檚 after decades of handling the products while working for Agriculture Canada in Saanich, B.C.
The decision says the plaintiffs submitted evidence including transcripts of depositions from similar cases in the United States involving the products鈥� active ingredient, paraquat, including internal documents from the company 鈥渄ating back decades.鈥�
Judge Sandra Wilkinson鈥檚 ruling says proceeding to trial as a class is 鈥渓ess burdensome鈥� to the court over numerous individual cases and favourable because the company allegedly concealed the risk and, if proven, the case will 鈥渃reate incentives for all industry participants to avoid similar conduct.鈥�
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