On March 1 2014, the industrial standard, “HG T4576-2013-Limitation of Harmful Solvents for Emulsifiable Concentrates Pesticide Preparations” became effective.
The standard was drafted by the China Crop Protection Industry Association (CCPIA), which was under the request by the MIIT. It sets limit level of several harmful solvents which are commonly used in EC(emulsifiable concentrates) pesticide formulations. The maximum limits of five affected chemical substances are listed in the Table below:
Solvent | Limit(Mass fraction) ≤ |
benzene | 1% |
toluene | 1% |
dimethylbenzene | 10% |
methanol | 5% |
dimethylformamide(DMF) | 2% |
Emulsifiable concentrates accounted for almost half of the formulated products in China. The adjuvant consumption for this product category is around 300,000 annually and most of the adjuvants are volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene and dimethylbenzene.
To minimize the adverse impact of these harmful chemicals, NDRC has suggestion a phased manner to cut the number of EC formulated pesticides in 2006:
The NDRC has issued an announcement to suspend all application of manufacturing authorization from EC producers since July 1 2006;
The MIIT has terminated the issuance of manufacturing approvals for EC formulations from August 1 2009;
Except some pesticide only suitable of EC formulation, production of EC formulations with benzene, toluene and dimethylbenzene should be stopped;
The main problem with the formulation is the harmful solvents in the product. Thus China is on one handing developing other formulation category and replacing the chemicals with other eco-friendly solvents.
With the implementation of this standard, CCPIA has also suggested an implement program of substituting the harmful solvents in existing products. The association selected 44 active ingredients which are most- frequently formulated in EC products (about 4000 products). Their producers would be required to renew their production certificate (MIIT’s approval certificate and AQSIQ’s Production License) by controlling the content of the subject harmful solvent. The pesticide adjuvant producers are required to set maximum limitation of ethylbenzene and naphthalene impurities and inform the level of the impurities to its downstream pesticide formulation producers. They are also not allowed to produce pesticide adjuvant with the harmful solvent restricted by the program.
