Carbosulfan is an organic compound adherent to the carbamate class. At normal conditions, it is brown viscous liquid. It is not very stable; it decomposes slowly at room temperature. Its solubility in water is low but it is miscible with xylene, hexane, chloroform, dichloromethane, methanol and acetone. Carbosulfan is used as an insecticide.[1] The European Union banned use of carbosulfan in 2007.[2]
Its oral LD50 for rats is 90 to 250 mg/kg bw, inhalation LC50 is 0.61 mg/L. Carbosulfan is only slightly absorbed through skin (LD50 >2000 mg/kg for rabbits). The mechanism of toxicity is based on reversible inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (as for carbamates generally).[3] Carbosulfan has very low maximum residue limits for use in the EU and UK examples of this can be seen in apples and oranges, where it is 0.05 mg/kg.