Composition, Distribution, and Characterization of Suspected Endocrine-Disrupting Pesticides in Beijing GuanTing Reservoir (GTR)

Abstract

Abstract. GuanTing Reservoir (GTR) is one of two main water resources for the agriculture, industry, and living uses of Beijing (China). As a result of extensive pollution over the last few decades (particularly the 1980s), the reservoir has not supplied potable water to Beijing city since 1997. Composition, distribution, and characterization of 31 suspected endocrine-disrupting pesticides in surface water, pore water, and surface sediments from the reservoir are reported in this study. An analytical procedure based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) technology and capillary gas chromatography with electroncapture detection has been developed for the simultaneous determination of the 31 suspected endocrine-disrupting pesticides including the compounds hexachlorocyclohexane, cyclodiene, diphenyl aliphatic, chlordane, and other selected pesticides (hexachlorobenzene, heptachlor, endrin aldehyde, hepachlor epoxide, dicofol, acetochlor, alachlor, metolachlor, chlorpyriphos, nitrofen, trifluralin, cypermethrin, fenvalerate, and deltamethrin). The result shows that the pesticide pollution is moderate in GTR and its tributaries, although pesticide residue values in a few sites are quite high when considering their endocrine-disrupting effects and chronic health effects. Among the analyzed pesticides, p,p¢-DDE, o,p¢-DDT, b-HCH, endosulfan sulfate, and aldrin were the most abundant pesticides in water while o,p¢-DOT, d-HCH, b-HCH, p,p¢-DDE, p,p¢-DDT, and endosulfan sulfate were the most abundant in sediment. The variation in concentration of pesticides among sites can be expected to be caused by several factors such as contaminants in the rivers and drainage of contaminated water from the surrounding agricultural fields.

Distribution and sources of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in sediments from upper reach of Huaihe River, East China

“…And DDTs production also continued due to export demand and dicofol production after the restriction of technical HCHs and DDTs in 1983 [9][10][11]. Extensive and continuous use of OCPs in China has resulted in ubiquitous OCPs pollution in various environmental media, especially in sediments [2,3,[12][13][14][15]. Recently levels and distributions of OCPs in sediments have frequently been detected [4,12,16,17].…”

Residues of organochlorine pesticides in water and suspended particulate matter from the Yangtze River catchment of Wuhan, China

“…Due to their intensive utilization in agricultural and industrial activities, reported across the world, even in Antarctica and the Arctic Zone (Fu et al 2001;Chiuchiolo et al 2004;Li and Macdonald 2005). Moreover, a majority of these pesticides belongs to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (Xue and Xu 2006), which have been well proved as a series of most harmful substances to the endocrine system of human beings and wild animals. Since these chemicals pose great threats to the health of ecosystem and human beings and have become one of the prevalent environmental issues across the world, it would be desirable and imperative to investigate their fates and transports in natural environment especially for countries with large-scale of OCPs adoptions.…”

Reproductive toxicity in male mice caused by organic extracts in tap water from the Jialing River in Chongqing, China

“…Previous studies have shown that EDCs can be detected in most of China's surface drinking water sources. The predominant species are organochlorine pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and phthalic acid esters (PAEs) or phthalates (Na et al, 2006; Qian et al, 2006; Sun et al, 2006; Xue and Xu, 2006; Zhou et al, 2006) Many studies suggested that source water and even drinking water in China have been polluted by organic pollutants. It was reported that di‐ n ‐butyl phthalate (DBP) and di‐(2‐ethylhexyl) phthalate were the main pollutants among five PAEs studied in the Wuhan section of the Yangtze River in high and low water periods, exceeding the Surface Water Quality Criteria of China by 82.4% (Wang et al, 2008).…”