Co-formulants (non-active substance used in agricultural chemicals)

Draft Ministerial Order Establishing Cases Defined by Ministerial Order of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of the Environment under Article 4, Paragraph (1), Item (xi) of the Agricultural Chemicals Regulation Act; (5 page(s), in Japanese)

Co-formulants are used together with active substances in agricultural chemicals to stabilize effects of the active substances. To date, there has been no independent regulation on co-formulants, although their safety has been confirmed through acute toxicity studies with formulations of agricultural chemicals containing co-formulants.

In accordance with the report of the Agricultural Chemicals Committee of the Agricultural Materials Council at its thirty-first meeting on June 22nd, 2022 as to the phasing out of certain substances used as co-formulants in order to enhance safety of agricultural chemicals, the proposed Ministerial Order will prohibit the registration of agricultural chemicals containing more than 0.1% w/w of any of the following 33 substances (counted on the CAS number basis), application for which is submitted after October 1st, 2023: acrylamide (CAS no. 79-06-1), amosite (12172-73-5), benzene (71-43-2), benzo[a]pyrene (50-32-8), 1,3-butadiene (106-99-0), chrysotile (12001-29-5), crocidolite (12001-28-4), dibutyl phthalate (84-74-2), 1,2-dichloroethane (107-06-2), diisobutyl phthalate (84-69-5), N,N-dimethylformamide (68-12-2), disodium octaborate tetrahydrate (12280-03-4), epichlorohydrin (106-89-8), ethoxylated tallow alkylamines (61791-26-2), ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (110-80-5), ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate (111-15-9), ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (109-86-4), ethylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (110-49-6), ethylene oxide (75-21-8), 1-ethylpyrrolidin-2-one (2687-91-4), formaldehyde (50-00-0), formamide (75-12-7), hydrotreated heavy naphthenic distillates (petroleum) (64742-52-5), hydrotreated neutral oil-based lubricating oils (petroleum) (64741-88-4, 72623-86-0 and 72623-87-1), N-methylformamide (123-39-7), nitrobenzene (98-95-3), 2-nitropropane (79-46-9), quinoline (91-22-5), sodium tetraborate (1330-43-4), sodium tetraborate decahydrate (1303-96-4) and sodium tetraborate pentahydrate (12179-04-3).