Quintozene
Last updated 12 April 2010
What is quintozene? Where is it used and how?
Quintozene is a fungicide registered for use in Australia as a seed dressing, as a seedling drench, a pre-plant soil-applied fungicide for vegetables, cotton and ornamentals, and as a pre-emergence fungicide for cotton. It is also used to control fungal diseases on bowling greens, golf greens and for a small number of post-emergence uses on lettuce, peanuts, apples and ornamentals.
Information to date suggests that the majority of use is as a seed dressing and on high-value turf such as bowling and golf greens. The product is not believed to be supplied or used in the home garden or in commercial turf production.
Ten products are registered in Australia. These products are relatively expensive to use on an area basis and use volumes are therefore low.
What is the issue with quintozene?
Testing undertaken by the APVMA on particular batches of the quinotzene active constituent and products containing quintozene indicated that those batches contained undeclared high levels of dioxins.
A human health risk assessment carried out by the Office of Chemical Safety and Environmental Health in the Department of Health and Ageing for the APVMA has shown that dioxin levels in quintozene products from those batches could be a risk to health for workers applying the products in some situations.
The contaminated active constituent from which the Australia products are made is imported from overseas. Other countries, such as the United States and Canada, use the same active constituent source.
Are there alternatives to quintozene?
A range of other fungicide products are registered in Australia that could be used as alternatives for the majority of uses for which quintozene is approved. These products can be identified through the PUBCRIS database accessible on the APVMA website.