Rochester, New York Chlorpyrifos Parkinsons Lawsuits

Jed Dietrich, Esq., Recognized as a Best Lawyer and American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys 10 Best Attorney, is Committed to Protecting the Rights of Families Across Rochester, NY. If You or a Loved One Has Been Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease After a Suspected Chlorpyrifos Exposure, Our Experienced Team of Attorneys Could Help You Collect the Evidence You Need to Obtain a Fair Settlement.

Chlorpyrifos has been used as a pesticide since 1965.

For more than half a century, staple foods across the United States were routinely treated with chlorpyrifos, a type of organophosphate insecticide that researchers now believe could raise the risk of conditions like Parkinson’s disease by more than 170%.

Outside of agriculture, this potent toxin has a long history in New York.

Before the early 2000s, it was not just used on farms it was sprayed on residential lawns, ant mounds, termite nests, and golf courses, too. Only in 2021 did legislators move to pass a blanket ban on all pesticides containing chlorpyrifos.

However, new restrictions cannot make amends for old injuries.

Unlike the flu or common cold, conditions like Parkinson’s disease can take a very long time to develop. In December 2025, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles not only established a link between chlorpyrifos exposure and Parkinson’s disease but found that it can be anywhere between 10 and 20 years for symptoms to start showing up.

In other words, any significant exposure, even one that took place long ago, could come back to hurt you when least expected.

You cannot change a diagnosis, but you have a right to hold the pesticide industry liable for its negligence. A recognized U.S. News & World Report Best Law Firm, the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. has spent decades helping Rochester families assert their rights to a fair recovery. We could help you, too, but you have to act fast. Call Jed Dietrich, Esq., today at 585-939-3939 to speak to a chlorpyrifos injury lawyer near Rochester and schedule your 100% free, no-obligation consultation as soon as possible.

The Environmental Protection Agency classifies chlorpyrifos, or CFP, as a type of organophosphate insecticide, acaricide, and miticide. It is used to control unwanted vegetation and exterminate insects and other pests that live in soil. Some manufacturers even put chlorpyrifos in cattle ear tags.

Chlorpyrifos is very good at what it does. When insects come into contact with the ingredient, chlorpyrifos blocks an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase. This enzyme plays a critical role in nervous system functioning, controlling communication between different nerve cells. Without it, an insect’s nervous system will quickly fail, leading to seizures and death.

Health researchers have always had concerns about the safety of chlorpyrifos, but it took decades for the federal government to finally start taking action. Regulators started to restrict the permitted uses of chlorpyrifos after studies determined that exposure could hurt children’s neurological development.

In New York, chlorpyrifos was banned in 2021, but many people who have histories of exposure, whether at home or in the workplace, would not know if they are sick unless and until symptoms finally begin to emerge. With conditions like Parkinson’s disease, this sometimes takes between 10 and 20 years from the date of an initial exposure.

In December 2025, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles published a peer-reviewed article analyzing data collected from participants in the school’s Parkinson’s Environment and Gene Study. The team used state-level pesticide-use reports, along with participants’ residential and work addresses, to estimate the long-term effects of estimated chlorpyrifos exposure. Scientists also tried to replicate exposure conditions by exposing laboratory mice to sprayable chlorpyrifos using inhalation methods designed to mimic the most common types of human exposures to CFP.

The UCLA study found that people with long-term residential chlorpyrifos exposure in other words, exposure after pesticides were sprayed on or around their homes had more than 2.5 times the risk of developing and being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease than those with no history of chlorpyrifos exposure.

“Mice exposed to the pesticide developed movement problems and lost dopamine-producing neurons, the same cells that die in Parkinson’s patients,” UCLA Health wrote in a 2026 press release. “The exposed mice also showed brain inflammation and abnormal accumulation of … a protein that clumps in Parkinson’s disease.”

The University of California team noted that, even though chlorpyrifos is no longer widely used in the United States, “many people were exposed in the past and similar pesticides are still used widely.” Critically, “the association of CPF exposure with PD was strong for exposures in the 10-20 years prior to the diagnosis and overall strongest with the longest duration window.”

In other words, people who develop Parkinson’s disease as the direct result of chlorpyrifos exposure would not usually know that anything is wrong for years, often decades, after an initial exposure.

Pesticide companies have a legal duty to ensure that their products are reasonably safe for their intended use. However, a growing body of evidence now suggests that many of these same companies:

1. Failed to study the long-term effects of exposure;
2. Ignored evidence suggesting that chlorpyrifos could cause Parkinson’s disease;
3. Continued to sell dangerous pesticides even as scientists began sounding the alarm;
4. Never warned the public of the potential dangers associated with chlorpyrifos; and
5. In some cases, actively sought to suppress evidence showing that CPF was dangerous.

Companies that fail to do their due diligence can be held liable for the cost of Parkinson’s disease treatment, pain and suffering, and a wide range of other damages. However, because many chlorpyrifos exposures occurred years, sometimes even decades, in the past, proving a definitive link between PD and CPF is not always easy.

If you think your diagnosis could be traced back to a past pesticide exposure, the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. could help you obtain the evidence you need to fight back. Since our founding in 2005, we have helped our clients in Rochester and throughout the region secure more than $300 million in compensation money they have used to eliminate medical debt, seek superior Parkinson’s disease care, and reclaim their financial independence in the wake of a devastating diagnosis.

We could help you, too.

Call Jed Dietrich, Esq., today at 585-939-3939 to speak to a chlorpyrifos Parkinson’s disease lawyer near Rochester and schedule your 100% free, no-obligation consultation as soon as possible.

Call the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. immediately at 585-939-3939 so that our aggressive, tenacious, and hardworking personal injury lawyers can fight to obtain the best result for your personal injury claim in Rochester, New York. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there is never a fee until we WIN for you!