Paraquat was the most successful nonselective herbicide in Korea due to its rapid herbicidal activity. However, its high mammalian toxicity, frequent self-poisoning incidents, and a lack of effective antidotes led to a paraquat ban in Korea in 2012. Therefore, this review was conducted to revisit the toxicological profile of paraquat and to investigate the impacts of the paraquat ban on human health and agriculture in Korea. A review of toxicological information reconfirmed that paraquat is highly acutely toxic to humans, and ingestion, inhalation, or dermal administration of the herbicide can cause severe clinical signs and inevitably lead to death by respiratory failure. In Korea, the paraquat ban immediately decreased the suicide rate due to pesticides (mainly paraquat) by 46.1%, resulting in a 10% decrease of the total suicide rate. However, this also led to an increase in suicide attempts with other poisons such as carbon monoxide, suggesting that suicide attempts and rates of suicide by poisoning depend on not only the toxicity of the poison but also the accessibility of the poisoning agents. In agriculture, paraquat was quickly replaced by other nonselective herbicides such as glufosinate and glyphosate. Thus, the paraquat ban did not have a significant impact on agricultural practices but influenced the nonselective herbicide market; the use of glufosinate was higher than use of glyphosate due to glufosinate’s rapid herbicidal activity, which is similar to that of paraquat. Though the paraquat ban can be considered as a national strategy to lower suicide rates, the increase in suicide attempts with other poisons suggests that multilateral efforts are required for not only keeping suicidal agents away from people but also minimizing motives for suicide.

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百草枯：毒理学及其禁令对人类健康和农业的影响

由于其快速的除草活性，百草枯是韩国最成功的非选择性除草剂。然而，由于其对哺乳动物的高毒性、频繁的自身中毒事件以及缺乏有效的解毒剂，导致 2012 年韩国禁止使用百草枯。因此，本次审查旨在重新审视百草枯的毒理学特征并调查百草枯的影响韩国禁止人类健康和农业。对毒理学资料的审查再次证实，百草枯对人类具有高度急性毒性，摄入、吸入或经皮施用除草剂会导致严重的临床症状，并不可避免地导致呼吸衰竭死亡。在韩国，百草枯禁令立即使因农药（主要是百草枯）导致的自杀率下降了 46.1%，从而使总自杀率下降了 10%。然而，这也导致使用一氧化碳等其他毒物的自杀企图增加，这表明自杀企图和中毒自杀率不仅取决于毒药的毒性，还取决于毒剂的可及性。在农业领域，百草枯很快被其他非选择性除草剂所取代，例如草铵膦和草甘膦。因此，百草枯禁令并未对农业实践产生重大影响，但影响了非选择性除草剂市场；由于草铵膦的快速除草活性，草铵膦的使用量高于草甘膦的使用量，这与百草枯相似。虽然百草枯禁令可以被视为降低自杀率的国家战略，