The Food and Drug Administration announced that the new pesticide residue standard for tea passion fruit. Chen Jizhong: if there is a problem, I will step down.

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The Food and Drug Administration has announced the revision of the "Pesticide residue tolerance Standard", in which tea trees will increase the use of "Saiambo" and "Saipifen", while passion fruit will add five new pesticide residue standards. this has been questioned by the outside world to open the door to pesticide convenience and break the five rings of food safety. In this regard, Chen Jizhong, vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, held a press conference on the 21st to clarify that there is absolutely no relaxation of standards, and that new drug registration will be scientifically tested, giving priority to the safety of agricultural products and food safety of consumers. As long as there are problems detected, promise to withdraw immediately and step down.

Two new drugs have been added to tea. Chen Jizhong: without the introduction of new drugs, old drugs cannot be withdrawn.

In March last year, the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare proposed to open up the pesticide "flurazide" to be used in tea trees, causing controversy to stop immediately. In May this year, the Food and Drug Administration revised the use of "Saiambo" and "cypermethrin" in response to the advance notice of tea trees, with the allowable doses of 1.5ppm and 20ppm respectively. Chen Jizhong pointed out that in March last year, the use of new fluoropyric tea was suspended after causing controversy, but agricultural products needed pesticides. "if the new drugs do not come into the market, the old ones will continue to be used." Take tea as an example. If you use fluoropyric, you only need to spray it once. Other pesticides must be sprayed two or three times. "which one uses more drugs?"

"if it is not defended professionally, the country will not make progress." Chen stressed that obviously in order to meet the needs of farmers and consumers' food safety, it is considered that the introduction of new drugs is tantamount to relaxing standards. "without the introduction of new drugs, old drugs cannot be withdrawn." Not only are farmers unable to solve the problem of diseases and insect pests, but consumers' food safety will also be faced with greater challenges.

(middle) Chen Jizhong, Vice Chairman of the Council of Agriculture (Photo / Liu Yixin)

Passion fruit increases five residue standards, Drug Institute: extended use is not relaxed.

Passion fruit last year set the same three pesticide residues as amipramine, fujiramine and vanadium, and this year it will add Mifen and Miezhike. The Bureau of Prevention and Inspection explained that the main pests of passion fruit include anthracnose, epidemic disease, thrips, aphids and leaf mites, and so on. In order to meet the needs of prevention and control, the government has taken the initiative to handle the extended use of pesticides through scientific evaluation of safety and effectiveness. The original registration and use on crops of the same form of production, control agents for the control of similar pests are open to passion fruit use. On the other hand, the formulation of the relevant pesticide residue standards is due to the fact that the demand for use has changed from the original "undetermined" state to "fixed", not relaxed.

Chen Jizhong explained that the output of passion fruit is small, the economy is small, and pharmacists will not develop drugs for passion fruit diseases and insect pests, but farmers still have this demand, so they extend the use of drugs from similar fruits to make relevant requirements and regulations. "it cannot be said that the use of extended drugs is relaxed, and there is a big difference."

Vivien Qi, director of the Institute of drugs and drugs of the Council of Agriculture, further explained that passion fruit is becoming more and more popular, but the market economy is small and there are no manufacturers to register pesticides, but there must be a lot of diseases and insect pests in crops. If there is no medicine available, farmers will spray casually and become unqualified. Now to set standards for human daily intake, not only consumers are more secure, but also farmers' needs for pest control can be achieved. "it is better to have a method of control than to misuse drugs by farmers themselves."

Outside concerns about safety, prevention and inspection bureau: introduction of new drugs to slow down drug resistance

However, are there any safety concerns about the addition of five new extended pesticides to passion fruit? Feng Haidong, director of the Bureau of Prevention and Inspection, explained that different pesticides are aimed at different control targets, and there are five kinds of drugs that can be used, but when farmers have certain diseases and insect pests, they may only use one kind of pesticides, and they will not use five kinds of pesticides at once. "Pesticide also requires money to buy. Farmers can't spray if they don't need it." However, when setting the standard, it is still based on the strict standard, which is the residue standard set by taking into account the simultaneous use of five pesticides.

Feng also explained that pesticides will be controlled in total to measure the fixed amount of risk, and the daily intake of pesticides per person shall not exceed 80%. Although individual drugs can be extended to use, they will measure the overall risk and will not expand their use once exceeded; because food intake varies among age groups, intake will be calculated according to different age groups to ensure that no one of any age group reaches 80%.

In the section on the new use of "cyclidine" and "cyclifen" in tea trees, Feng Haidong explained that "cyclifen" registered in tea trees is a general acaricidal agent, and people think that there is already a drug to use, so why do they need new drugs? "mites develop drug resistance, and the purpose of introducing new mechanisms of action is to delay the development of drug resistance."

Feng further explained that the two new drugs "Saiambo" and "Sepaifen" do not necessarily have to replace any old drug, but there are now more than a dozen kinds of drugs for mites, but half of them are of the same type, so it is easy to develop drug resistance, so the introduction of different types of new drugs can slow down drug resistance. Otherwise, in the case of only old drugs, there will be drug resistance. In order to achieve the effect of killing mites, farmers will increase the dosage and frequency of drugs, which will have a negative impact on agricultural products.

The carcinogenic grade of "Sipaifen" is C, and there is some evidence to cause cancer.

Chen Chi-Chung points out that Taiwan has set a 20ppm residue standard for "paracetamol", which is lower than that of other countries. For example, Japan has set it as 60ppm. "the Japanese love tea and care about safety, but we set it 1/3 lower than they do."

Vivien Qi says that there is a registration and exit system for pesticides, and if early pesticides find a better alternative to new drugs, they will be phased out one after another, and the new drugs are relatively safer. After evaluation and experiments, they have the effect of pest control without harming the environment and the human body.

Fei stressed that if pesticides are to be registered and used in our country, there must be physical and chemical data, including efficacy, drug damage, residues, and toxicological tests, such as acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, and so on. Even if it affects bees, birds, aquatic organisms, and so on, it is necessary to produce an experimental report. "it is not so easy from development to registration, and registration is only possible after examination and approval."

Pan Zhikuan, head of the Food Section of the Food and Drug Administration, further said that pesticide standards must take the maintenance of food hygiene and safety and national health as the premise, refer to international norms, and evaluate safety with scientific evidence, including front-end pesticide use demand, toxicity data, residue tests, national intake assessment, and through the Food Safety Nutrition Consultative Council review, the advance notice procedure will not continue until it is determined to be safe, and there will be a 60-day review period at the same time.

The carcinogenic level of "paracetamol" is C, and outsiders have repeatedly questioned the impact of the drug on human safety. Feng Haidong explained that level C is based on animal experiments, there is some evidence of carcinogenicity, but it is impossible to prove whether it is carcinogenic to the human body. therefore, this kind of pesticide will set a certain standard and allowable dose according to toxicology, and the safety of the drug will be re-evaluated every time the drug is used.

Tseng Teh-chih, an honorary professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at Chung Hsing University, points out that these two new drugs are very good drugs, relatively safe, and effective. Now many tea farmers are suffering a lot because of mites and need new drugs. However, "Sipaifen" carcinogenic level is C, there will be no doubts about human health? It was once believed that the residue standards of these two new drugs are very safe for the human body, and grade C generally does not care too much. "Tea will not be eaten as a meal."

Chen Jizhong: if there is a problem, I will step down immediately.

On the other hand, Chen Jizhong promised that if there is an experiment that proves that Sepaifen has a risk of causing cancer to the human body, he is guaranteed to withdraw, and he is also willing to make all the information of the Pesticide Advisory Committee completely public, "in the end, whether the introduction of new drugs is helpful to tea farmers and whether it is better for consumer safety. If it is not safer, I am 100% responsible." He stressed: "the Council of Agriculture is not only responsible for agricultural production, but also for the safety of agricultural products. The introduction and extended use of new drugs cannot make agricultural products safe. I am absolutely responsible. If there are any problems, I will step down immediately."

Housewives Union Foundation: "drugs can be extended, but there should be better control."

Zhang Yuling, executive director of the Housewives' Union Environmental Protection Foundation, said that all pesticides are harmful to the human body and the environment, and the smaller the dosage, the better. since new drugs or extended use of drugs are introduced, other drugs should be relatively reduced. so that it won't affect human health. "if there are drugs coming in, there must be drugs out, otherwise new drugs will be put in all the time, how can pesticides be halved in ten years?" Consumers will only feel that there are more and more pesticides, not how safe the new drug is.

Zhang questioned that since the use of drugs has been extended, but have other pesticides been reduced? otherwise, you only had to worry that you would get this medicine when you ate one kind of vegetable, but now you may get all three. "it is understandable that extended medication should be used, but there should be better control." Zhang stressed that farmers should still be encouraged to use other biological control methods instead of drugs, which is the most fundamental way.

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