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DuPont Crop Protection

DuPont Crop Protection serves production agriculture with products for the grain and specialty crop sectors as well as forestry and vegetation management. It includes global herbicide, fungicide and insecticide products and services.

Clean Air Act and Volatile Organic Compounds

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are usually made from petroleum and are a major constituent of gasoline. They are also used as solvents present in products from paints and adhesives to inks and some, but not all, consumer and commercial pesticide formulations. As these products dry, VOC solvents are emitted into the air ~ a prime example of this is motor vehicle emissions.

Position Paper

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Background

While occasionally, VOCs can react with nitrogen oxides that are present in the air from fossil fuel combustion, resulting in the formation of ozone near the ground, VOC emissions do not appear to pose a significant public health risk. However, because VOCs contribute to ground-level ozone formation, they are regulated by the 1990 Clean Air Act and similar state laws.

  • Not all VOCs are equal in their ability to produce ozone.
  • VOCs in pesticide formulations have low relative reactivity and do not contribute significantly to ground level ozone. 

CropLife America's Position

  • Scientific data1 support ozone control strategies based on reactivity of individual VOCs rather than on total VOC emissions.
  • EPA and states should uniformly adopt VOC control strategies across all regulatory frameworks based only on relative reactivity.
  • VOCs in pesticide formulations have low relative reactivity and do not contribute significantly to ground-level ozone.
  • VOCs in pesticide formulations do not contribute significantly to non-attainment in the San Joaquin Valley or anywhere else, and should not be regulated in that capacity.

1Russell, A, et al. (1995). Urban Ozone Control and Atmospheric Reactivity of Organic Gases. Science 269(5223): 491- 5

 

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