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Fumigant used in grain storage phased out

By Wang Jingqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-12 09:15

The authorities have phased out the use of methyl bromide as a fumigant for grain storage in a bid to protect the ozone layer, an official from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said over the weekend.

Methyl bromide is an ozone depleting substance that China committed to phase out by 2015, a promise made when it joined the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 1991.

"Grain storage became the first to complete the phase out among three sectors a total of 210 tons of methyl bromide in 128 grain depots had been phased out by January 2007, fulfilling China's commitment to the international community", Zhu Guangyao, vice-minister of the MEP, said yesterday.

The other two industries targeted to phase out methyl bromide use are the tobacco and agriculture sectors.

Phosphine gas recirculation under plastic film and phosphine mixed with carbon dioxide fumigation technology have been identified as the two alternative technologies for methyl bromide, the State Administration of Grain (SAG) has said.

Phosphine is more environmentally friendly and less likely to leave residues in foodstuffs, experts have said.

"All phosphine generators now used in China are made in China; and Chinese technology for grain fumigation is also being exported abroad," said Sajjad Ajmal, China representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The government has been working together with UNIDO in the Ozone Depleting Substances phase-out project since 1993.

"We should continue to monitor the effect and resistance of alternative technology and enhance field tests of new alternative pesticides, as the drug resistance of pests is expected to grow after the phase-out," He Yi, director of the department of distribution and science and technology development under the SAG, said.