No abstract

The intensive use of pesticides such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and acaricides has been lead to ubiquitous contamination, being present not only in soils, water bodies and/or crops, but also in the atmosphere. Considering the massive amount of pesticides employed globally, together to their persistence, this may be an important concern regarding air quality and human health worldwide. In the present study we developed a green sensitive sample preparation method for determination of nine organophosphates, two pyrethroids, one carbamate, and one strobirulin in PM2.5 collected in a tropical coastal area in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. Extraction of PM2.5 sample masses, as low as 206 µg, were performed in a miniaturized device using 500 μL of a mixture containing 18% acetonitrile in dichloromethane followed by sonication for 23 minutes and injection into GC-MS. A total of 12 pesticides were identified and quantified successfully, among them, eight banned pesticides. A risk assessment exposure and cancer risk for possible carcinogenic pesticides (bifenthrin, malathion, parathion and permethrin) were performed for exposure of adults, children and infants. Hazard Quotient and cumulative exposure for organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides were less than 1, showing that cumulative risk is within acceptable range.

No abstract

This review brings new trends in analytical methodologies for extraction and determination of pesticides in atmospheric samples.

Since the 1950s, pesticides have been used in agriculture. The increase in their consumption has been observed in recent years. In this work, it was determined the concentration of pesticides in the atmosphere of São Paulo and Piracicaba cities (sugarcane plantation site) and the hazard quotients and cancer risk caused by inhalation of these compounds were calculated. Twenty-three samples were analyzed and 34 pesticides associated to atmospheric particulate matter (with diameter equal to or less than 2.5 (PM 2.5) and 10 µm (PM 10)) were investigated by gas chromatograpy-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Fourteen compounds including organochlorines, organophosphorus, and pyrethroids pesticides, were determined in these samples. The concentrations in the particulate matter ranged from 17 pg m −3 (tebuconazole) in Piracicaba, to 166 pg m −3 (endrin aldehyde) in São Paulo. The highest values of daily inhalation exposure for heptachlor were 9.0 × 10 −5 mg kg −1 day −1 at Piracicaba, and 6.5 × 10 −5 mg kg −1 day −1 at São Paulo, in both cases registered in infants. The values of the hazard quotients are lower than 1.0, indicating that there is no danger to the exposed population, it is health protective. On the other hand, the cancer risk calculations for heptachlor resulted in values above those recommended by US Environmental Protection Agecy (EPA).