The Council of Agriculture on Saturday announced a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos from 2026.
The council said it is aiming to halve the use of pesticides in Taiwan within 10 years, but is seeking to remove chlorpyrifos from farms earlier due to concerns that it affects brain development in fetuses.
The pesticide would be phased out in three stages, it said.
Importing and manufacturing chlorpyrifos would be banned from the middle of next month, its processing and sub-packaging would be banned from the beginning of next year, and its use would be banned from 2026, it said.
Chlorpyrifos, which acts on the nervous systems of insects, was patented in 1966 by Dow Chemical in the US, but most US states have had bans in place since 2001. It remains in use in Taiwan, where it was first imported in 1985 and had for several years been the most widely used pesticide.
Farmers use it because it is cheap and effective, the council said.
Although it is used to control insects, chlorpyrifos can be harmful to humans, it said.
“Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphorus agent with high toxicity and is generally used in large quantities,” National Taiwan University Hospital toxicology professor Chiang Chih-kang (姜至剛) said. “Excessive exposure to it will cause headaches, nausea, diarrhea, palpitations, drooling, blurred vision and disorientation.”
Studies have linked the pesticide to neurological disorders in children, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, he said.
The EU has banned chlorpyrifos entirely and the US prohibits the sale of food products containing traces of the pesticide, he said.
Taiwan has banned the use of chlorpyrifos in the farming of several widely consumed crops, including rice, citrus fruits, lychee and longan, as well as other fruits and vegetables, the council said.
It would be phased out in stages to reduce the impact on farmers, it added.
The use of chlorpyrifos by Taiwanese farmers has been decreasing since 2017, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Chou Hui-chuan (鄒慧娟) said.
Farmers used 448 tonnes of the pesticide in 2017, compared with 278 tonnes last year, she said.
“The Council of Agriculture has investigated alternative pest control methods for farmers, including the use of trap lights and biopesticides,” she said. “Farmers’ cooperatives throughout the country will provide consultations to help with the transition.”
Transitioning away from chemical pesticides is the right direction, as pesticide residues accumulating in the body leads to chronic health problems, she said.
Potentially harmful traces of pesticides have also been found in soil samples, Chou added.
“Worms and insects show signs of poisoning two weeks after the soil was sprayed with organophosphorus agents,” she said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS