Abstract
Pesticides can remain in the environment for decades and contaminate surface water that is used for irrigation of produce. This study examined pesticide residues in some surface waters and foods in Louisiana. Samples of 8 foods (tomato, corn, rice, blueberry, cucumber, cabbage, wheat and melon) and 35 surface waters were studied using a QuEChERS extraction method for food samples and liquid-liquid extraction method for the water samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze water and food samples. Nine pesticides were detected in the surface water samples and 5 in the food samples. Pesticides detected in foods were below FDA tolerance limit but 0.18 ppm cypermethrin found in tomato was within 90% of the FDA limit (0.2 ppm). Four water samples had atrazine levels that were above the FDA limit for potable water. This study suggests the need to intermittently monitor pesticide contamination in our food and water.
Highlights
Food and water are among the basic necessities of life and must be consumed in a contamination-free manner in order to maintain a healthy diet
Since there is no threshold set for pesticide residues in surface water, the closest way to interpret the possible impact of the pesticide levels detected in this study was to compare them with the threshold set for potable waters by the EPA
Despite the closeness of insecticide detected in tomato to the tolerance level, all the pesticides found in the food samples were below threshold value
Summary
Food and water are among the basic necessities of life and must be consumed in a contamination-free manner in order to maintain a healthy diet. Analytical methods such as gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) have been used in the past but were not confirmatory in their output results. This was mainly due to the type of detectors routinely used namely electron capture, flame photometric, nitrogen phosphorus in GC and ultraviolet and fluorescence detectors in HPLC [6]. This study seeks to quantitate possible pesticide residue in surface waters and some food crops in Louisiana in attempt to enhance our environmental and health management
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