Trace Determination of Pesticides and their Degradation Products in Water (BOOK REPRINT)

Damia Barcelo, M.-C. Hennion, M.-C. Hennion

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• ISBN:
  9780080543123
• Topic: Scienze fisiche
• Subtopic: Scienze ambientali

Trace Determination of Pesticides and their Degradation Products in Water is a critical compilation of analytical methods for the monitoring of pesticides and their degradation products in water. It contains up-to-date material and is the result of the authors' experience in the pesticide analysis field. The book is structured in six chapters, starting from general aspects of pesticides like usage, physicochemical parameters and occurrence in the environment. A second chapter is devoted to sampling from water matrices, stability methods of pesticides in water and quality assurance issues. The general chromatographic methods for pesticides are reported, including the newly developed electrophoresis methods and GC-MS and LC-MS confirmatory analytical methods. Sample preparation methodologies, including off-line and on-line techniques are described in the next two chapters, with a comprehensive list of examples of pesticides and many metabolites, including the use of different GC-methods and LC-methods. The final chapter is devoted to the development of biological techniques, immunoassays and biosensors, for the trace determination of pesticides in water samples.

Chapter 1

Pesticides their Degradation Products:Characteristics Usage Environmental Behaviour

Damià Barceló Environmental Chemistry Department, C.I.D. (C.S.I.C.) c/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain

Marie-Claire Hennion Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris, Laboratoire de Chimie Analytique, 10 Rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Since the late 1970s, concern about the contamination of water has increased, partly due to the increasing number of pesticide detections in water but also partly in connection with the strict directives that were set up for protecting drinking water sources, especially in North America and Western Europe. Pesticide residues have been monitored with regard to regulatory compliance at levels that can exceed the maximum allowed concentration in surface, groundwater and finished drinking waters [1–3]. The detection of some pesticides, mainly herbicides, in water sources has also indicated a lack of understanding of their behaviour and was the stimulus for many studies on their fate and transport. With the improvement of analytical methods involving gas and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, the use of new sorbent materials with higher trapping abilities, and the development of automated methods, several degradation products have been identified in recent years. The term degradation products in this volume refers to both biotic and abiotic transformation products of a parent pesticide and therefore includes metabolites.

1.1.1 Historical context of pesticide use

Although detailed evidence of water contamination is rather recent, the use of pesticides began several decades ago. The commercial active ingredients were discovered incidentally during global biological tests on a great number of compounds [4]. The use of synthetic organic pesticides began in the early 1930s after the demonstration of the insecticidal properties of some alkyl thiocyanates and fungicidal properties of dithiocarbamates. However, the real beginning of the pesticide industry occurred with the introduction of DDT, patented in 1942; it remained one of the leading insecticide products for during two decades. During the same period, the first herbicide 2,4-D was introduced into the market in 1944. In the period 1945–1955, the so-called “second generation of pesticides”, i.e. most of the organophosphorus insecticides, many carbamates and ureas, was developed, some representatives of which are still commonly used today. Quaternary ammonium materials and triazines were introduced in the years 1955–1960.

In the period 1960–70 many fungicides were developed, such as benzimidazoles, pyrimid...