Disastrous Global Drop in Bee Populations Alerts Pesticide Producers   

According to reports of the United Nations, global warming and other environmental aggravations will reduce 9% of plant species, and bee populations will be disastrously reduced. The output of cash crops that rely on bee pollination, such as 90 kinds of fruit trees and many vegetables, will be affected. Polluted seawater and the obliteration of large areas of coral reefs are seriously damaging the living environment for many kinds of fish. It is estimated that the lives of 1.0 billion people in Asia alone will be affected.
   With the development of China's economy, the diversity of organisms here faces a severe crisis due to damage to the environment. Protecting diversity includes protecting natural enemies of plants. It involves various scientific disciplines and is a long-term tedious job. While the government formulates national strategies and action schemes, various social sectors and even common people are also duty-bound in taking the diversity of organisms, the development of the economy and the improvement of the environment into comprehensive consideration and embedding energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection deep into their thoughts and actions. In this regard, pesticide enterprises should at least make two major reviews of themselves.
   One is the review of the production and use of pesticides with high toxicity and high residue. Since 2007 China has tried to reduce production and use of pesticides with high toxicity and high residue. For example, five highly toxic pesticides including methamidophos were banned from use in agricultural production beginning January 1st, 2007. As fipronil presents a high risk to aquatic crustaceans and bees, and degrades slowly in water and soil, China made a clear-cut provision that fipronil was banned from direct use in agricultural production from October 1st, 2009. The Ministry of Agriculture has recently proposed to eliminate 21 highly toxic insecticides that are presently produced and used in China, such as phorate, carbofuran, aluminum phosphide and methomyl. Such adjustments are however far from enough! With the increasing requirements of the international community for environmental protection, a series of international conventions and regulations such as the Rotterdam Convention, POPs Convention and REACH have been issued. Twenty two pesticides are included in the list of the Rotterdam Convention. Nine pesticides are tentatively included in the list of the POPs Convention. More than 450 pesticides are included in the list of products forbidden for use in EU. Over 60 of them are related to pesticides being produced, used and exported by China today such as omethoate, butachlor and isoprothiolane. In China the pesticides with high toxicity and high residue account for 15%-20% of the total pesticide output. China has therefore become one of the countries with the most serious pesticide pollution in the world and the rate of detected pesticide residue in food is as high as 90% in the country.
   To protect bees, the European Community has revised conditions for the use of four insecticides including clothiadin, thiamethoxam, fipronil and imidacloprid. The European Community points out that the purpose of doing this is mainly to prevent the volatilization of effective ingredients in seed treatment by insecticides because it would bring serious harms to bees. China should learn from this practice. Among pesticides with high toxicity and high residue, some varieties are hazardous to bees (and, of course, to other insects that are natural enemies of plants). These should be screened and strict measures forbidding or restricting their use should be taken. China produced active ingredients of nearly 600 chemical pesticides in 2009 with the combined output reaching 2.2622 million tons. Around 300 000 tons were used domestically, while 80% of output was exported. The era of exporting better and greener products and consuming bad and polluting products in Chinese pesticide sector should be put to an end as soon as possible. With greater attention paid to health and environmental protection, biological pesticides that are safe to man and animals, and harmonious in the environment should become the mainstream products in the domestic market. The output of chemical pesticides in China has been reduced at an annual rate of around 2% whereas the output of biological pesticides has increased at an annual rate of 20% in recent years. The development of environment-friendly green pesticides should get sufficient attention from domestic enterprises, especially medium and small enterprises.
   The other is a review of the emission of wastes. Most pesticide active ingredient producers in China are small-scale. Environmental protection units in most enterprises do not operate standard or do not operate at all. Most pesticide processing enterprises have no waste treatment units. Great quantities of waste water emitted in pesticide production have a high COD concentration and contain many toxins such as inorganic salts in great amounts, organic chlorides with little biodegradability, and pesticides. For example, producing 1 ton of abamectin active ingredient generates 400 tons of waste water; producing 1 ton of imidacloprid active ingredient generates 48 tons of waste water; producing 1 ton of glyphosate active ingredient generates 17 tons of waste water; and producing 1 ton of chlorpyrifos active ingredient generates 6 tons of waste water. Sixty eight pollutants are generated in the production of pyrethrins and 65 of them are water pollutants.
   According to experts, most waste water generated in pesticide production - the production of fungicides and herbicides in particular - is not suitable for biochemical treatment. Few pesticide producers in China have incinerators. Due to the high cost of incineration, the incinerators of a few large pesticide producers are usually idled. According to statistics, around 145 pesticide producers are distributed in the Yangtze River drainage basin. The flow of waste water generated in pesticide production already threatens the safety of drinking water and the safety of the environment downstream. The entire ecosystem fed by the Yangtze River is no longer healthy.