An effective method for pesticide residues and related compounds determination in air by GC-MS/MS to evaluate occupational exposure of workers and pesticide users

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pesticide application is generally carried out by aerial or land spraying and part of what is applied can be transferred to the atmosphere. Despite considerable research on pesticides in the air, most studies have focused on a small number of compounds and emphasised the volatile pesticides, with little attention to current-use pesticides. Therefore, a reliable method was developed and validated for the multiresidue determination of 37 pesticides and 11 metabolites or related compounds in air samples. The method was based on an active sampling for 8 h using solid-phase traps containing Tenax® TA, direct extraction of the analytes from the traps with acetone, and determination by gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in a triple quadrupole system. The method conditions were optimised using design of experiments. Compound recoveries (evaluated between 0.6 and 4.8 µg m−3) ranged from 71 to 114%, all with relative standard deviation ≤ 17%. The practical method limits of quantification were from 0.6 to 1.2 µg m−3 and the method limits of detection were from 0.2 to 0.4 µg m−3. The proposed method proved to be effective and comprehensive in terms of the classes and volatility of compounds that can be determined simultaneously at very low limits, with potential for application in occupational exposure and environmental monitoring.