China Regulates Transport of Pesticides    

Recently, China's Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public Security and State Administration of Work Safety jointly issued an official "Notice on Transport of Pesticides". This notice clearly stipulates that the micro-toxicity and low-toxicity pesticides are not defined as dangerous goods in transport and should be managed according to the common goods transportation management regulation; the moderate-toxicity pesticides with an inner vessel volume of less than 5 kilogram or 5 liter and a weight of less than 30 kilogram per single pack should be managed upon the common goods transportation management regulation; and lethally toxic and high-toxicity pesticides should still be managed upon the dangerous goods transportation management regulation. It is estimated that more than 90% of pesticides can be transported as common goods according to the above notice. Thus, the unclear problem of pesticide transport management has been solved.
    In China now, there are more than 600 types of pesticides and 23 000 pesticide products that have been legally registered, said China Pesticide Research Institute. According to the criterion for the classification of pesticide toxicity stipulated by the national standard "Toxicological Test Methods for Pesticide Registration", among the 23 000 legally registered pesticide products, number of lethally toxic products accounts for 0.07%, high-toxicity products 3.53%, moderate-toxicity products 23.1%, low-toxicity products 67.2%, and micro-toxicity products 6.1%. Among them, lethally toxic and high-toxicity products account for less than 5% in total. With the prevailing international exemption practice for the transport of dangerous chemicals and the increasingly standardized packaging, the vast majority of pesticide products do not need to be managed as dangerous chemicals in transport.
    Before the notice release, the existing stipulations of "Regulation on the Safety Administration of Dangerous Chemicals" and "List of Dangerous Goods" classified all pesticides generally as dangerous chemicals. Accordingly the transportation of pesticides had to comply with the dangerous goods transport management regulations, which resulted in more complicated procedures and difficulties for the transport of pesticides. The over strict management not only substantially increased the cost of pesticide enterprises, but also adversely extended the transport time and increased farmers' expenditures. In many areas, no one dares to transport pesticides.
     This new notice can ensure the smooth and timely transport of pesticides. It can not only be conducive to the farmers' timely use of pesticides, but also reduce the burdens of pesticide producers and traders. According to preliminary estimates, it can save more than RMB2 billion of transport costs for domestic pesticide enterprises per year.