Clethodim purchasing season drawing near; Hot storage data suggests how to reduce degradation; EU re-evaluation advances smoothly

Following the previous paper ″Bound by Ethyl mercaptan, China’s clethodim production blocked,″ there has been good news from the Chinese market, where Gansu Runtaihe Chemical Technology Co., Ltd announced the launch of an annual 10,000-ton mercaptan project. 

The project covers the production line of ethanethiol, butyl mercaptan and n-octyl mercaptan, respectively, and includes supportive facilities. 

Although the project will take some time before it begins operations, it brings hope to the industry players. Moreover, clethodim manufacturers have declared their efforts to solve the limited supply of ethanethiol, which is expected to stabilize the global supply of clethodim this year. 

The clethodim purchasing season is around the corner. In light of the problem of instability of the product which is prone to degradation in a high temperature environment, to provide professional support to industry players, AgroPages contacted Shanghai IPRO-DVA Inspection Technology Co., LTD, a specialist testing agency, which has conducted hot storage testing on the product. The third-party’s testing data are presented as follows:

A summary of clethodim stability testing data under hot storage

The hot storage stability test was carried out against different specifications of clethodim EC (120g/L EC, 240g/L EC, 360g/L EC). The test revealed that under the condition of (54±2)0C for 14 days, the degrading rate of clethodim after hot storage remained within 10%. Concurrently, a hot storage stability test was conducted on 240g/L clethodim EC under (35±2) °C. It revealed that the degrading rate after hot storage stayed within 5%. The degrading rate was lower than storage under (54±2) °C for 14 days. Meanwhile, storage under (35±2) °C for 14 days was of lower degradation over 12 weeks. Therefore, the hot storage temperature condition has a big impact on the degrading rate of clethodim. 

The results show that, firstly, the higher the temperature, the more significant the degradation. Secondly, the longer the storage, the more significant the degradation. The above data is complete data from real experimentation, which is presented for reference to the benefit of manufacturers.

Furthermore, from the regulatory policy perspective, experts of REACH24H in Hangzhou, informed that clethodim is currently in the process of re-evaluation in the EU, for which applicants have submitted data to the EU member states. According to the data disclosed by applicants, the critical data involved in the re-evaluation is related to metabolite, mammal endocrine disrupting effects, etc. To this end, applicants have provided supplementary data, and all results appear conformable to the current evaluation standard. 

Due to the migratory aptitude of the metabolites of clethodim, applicants also have re-conducted relevant exposure assessment in accordance with the latest EU requirement, making the risk assessment result more complete, showing that no metabolites in the environment are considered disrupting metabolites. 

Although applicants are still completing the endocrine-disrupting effect assessment report concerning clethodim's impact on non-target organisms, clethodim is likely to be highly safe because of the published EU dossier. This is undoubtedly a very positive sign for clethodim’s future market deployment in the global market.