Abstract
This study evaluated the environmental occurrence of fifty-one pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in surface and drinking water samples collected in southern Brazil over a 4-year period. The method used involved a stage based on solid-phase extraction, followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Thirty compounds were detected (22 different pesticides and 8 PPCPs) and at least four compounds were identified in more than 50% of the samples. Atrazine was the most frequently detected pesticide and it was found at concentrations between 5 and 49 ng L-1. From PPCPs, glibenclamide, methylparaben and nimesulide were the most commonly detected in both drinking water and surface water samples. Results showed the extent to which traces of pesticides and PPCPs were present in water samples from this region.
Highlights
Brazil is the world’s largest consumer of pesticides and over 1500 commercial products have been registered by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture
Atrazine is an herbicide from the class of triazines, which is mainly employed in Brazil as a weedkiller in the cultivation of rice, soybeans, sugarcane, corn and other crops.[20]
A larger number of pesticides were detected than pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) (Table 1)
Summary
Brazil is the world’s largest consumer of pesticides and over 1500 commercial products have been registered by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. The legal standards governing water quality in Brazil do not cover a number of products that are used routinely, and many emerging contaminants are not listed in the current legislation on the quality of drinking water.[1,2] the country leads the world in terms of the use of pesticides, little is known about their occurrence, and very little data has been obtained with regard to the presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment.[3,4,5]. Because of contradictions in the outcomes of Residues of pesticides and, more recently, PPCPs, have been detected in aquatic environments (wastewater treatment plants, drinking water, rivers and groundwater) all around the world,[8,9] including Brazil.[3,10,11] Some PPCPs that are classified as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC), which may have human health effects at low concentrations, have been detected in Brazilian waters,[11,12,13,14] pointing to the importance of this kind of study
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