China speeds up substitution for pesticide emulsion formulation

Recently the Chinese Ministry of Industry&Information Technology （MIIT), Ministry of Science & Technologyo(MST), Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) jointly publicized the “Catalog of State-Encouraged Substitutes for Toxic and Hazardous Material/Product”, which explicitly requests the use of environment-friendly solvent such as resin base solvent and white oil to substitute for organic light aromatic solvent like toluene and dimethylbenzene in the course of production of  pesticide emulsion.

According to statistics of the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA), emulsion formulation based on organic light aromatic solvent like toluene and dimethylbenzene accounts for 40% of the 2 million tons pesticide formulations consumed each year in China. Organic light aromatic solvent like toluene and dimethylbenzene is harmful to the health of users and causes serious damages to soil and environment, having been prohibited or restricted in developed countries. China’s "12th-Five-Year Plan for Pesticide Development” put forward a strict control over the use of hazardous solvent like toluene and dimethylbenzene while suggesting the development of water-based formulations.

Since 2006 Chinese government started to carry out prohibition or restriction of the use of hazardous organic light aromatic solvent, which is however not implemented in a strict manner for fear of a too-heavy impact to the industry which may restrain farmers ’ use of pesticides'. Some days ago a “Hazardous Solvent Limit in Emulsion Pesticide” has been submitted by industry associations to MIIT, which is expected to be publicized for implementation within this year and to result in an accelerated progressing of emulsion formulation substitution process.