China to ban ozone-harming chemical ( 2003-09-18 10:50) (China Daily)
Production and use of methyl bromide will be greatly reduced in China by
2005, a national plan released yesterday states.
By then, the use and production of methyl bromide in China will be reduced by
20 per cent compared to the average levels used between 1995 and 1998, according
to the document.
Methyl bromide, a pesticide that can effectively eliminate pests in soils, is
also used to fumigate items such as building materials.
At the same time, however, it is one of many dangerous chemicals that can
harm the environment and damage the ozone layer.
The national plan states that with the exception of some critical uses, the
methyl bromide production and use in China will be banned by 2015.
The plan was created by experts from both home and abroad in accordance with
the Copenhagen Amendment of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer. That accord was agreed to in 1992, when methyl bromide was listed
as a controlled substance.
China joined the agreement and has ratified it.
At present there are three methyl bromide producers in China with a
production capacity of 8,400 tons a year. Last year, the total output was a
little more than 3,500 tons, according to Peking University Professor Hu
Jianxin, who took part in designing the plan.
The total use of methyl bromide for fumigation in agriculture was more than
1,800 tons last year, Hu said yesterday at an international workshop on the
methyl bromide phase-out plan.
The workshop, held in Beijing, was organized by China's Environmental
Protection Administration and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
According to Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration
Xie Zhenhua, China has phased out the largest quantity of ozone depletion
substances (ODS) among developing countries.