Editing Parathion (section)

==History==
[[File:E605-forte.jpg|thumb|Bottle with E605]]
Parathion was developed by [[Gerhard Schrader]] for the German trust [[IG Farben]] in the 1940s.  After [[World War II]] and the collapse of IG Farben due to the war crime trials, the Western allies seized the [[patent]], and parathion was marketed worldwide by different companies and under different brand names. The most common German brand was '''E605''' (banned in Germany after 2002); this was not a food-additive "[[E number]]" as used in the EU today. "E" stands for ''Entwicklungsnummer'' (German for "development number").  It is an irreversible [[acetylcholinesterase inhibitor]].

Safety concerns later led to the development of [[parathion methyl]], which is somewhat less toxic.

In the [[EU]], Parathion was banned after 2001. <ref> [https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32001D0520&from=DE Non-inclusion of parathion in Annex I to Council Directive 91/414/EEC]</ref> In [[Switzerland]], the substance is no longer approved as a pesticide.