China conducted risk reviews for pesticide products

Many provinces in China have recently conducted risk reviews of four-pesticide product acephate, carbosulfan, dimethoate, and thiodicarb in response to the request of the Chinese Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture.

The initiative aimed to understand the manufacturing and marketing situations of those pesticides, investigating safety risks to ensure agriculture production safety.

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

The global acephate production centers are China and India, with about 11 acephate production companies in China, mostly located in Hubei, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang province. Currently, Hubei Sanonda, Zhejiang Jiahua and Jiangsu Lanfeng Biochemical have relatively lager production scales.