China conducts risk reviews of acephate, three other pesticide products

Many provinces in China, including the main pesticide production provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong, recently conducted risk reviews of four pesticide products such as acephate, carbosulfan, dimethoate and thiodicarb, in response to the request by Chinese Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA). The initiative was to understand the manufacturing and marketing situations of the four pesticides and investigating the risks to ensure agriculture production safety.

Among the four pesticides, the systemic contact insecticide acephate, with high efficiency and low residue, is broadly used as an alternative to the high-toxic organophosphorus pesticide. However, the formulated product of acephate has a medium stability that could be degraded to methamidophos, causing problems of pesticide residues in agricultural products. Some countries, including the EU, New Zealand and Brazil, have banned or restricted the use of acephate.

China and India are the global production centers of acephate. China has about 11 acephate production companies, mainly located in Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Currently Hubei Sanonda, Zhejiang Jiahua and Jiangsu Lanfeng Biochemical have relatively lager production scales.