Pesticides in fine airborne particles: from a green analysis method to atmospheric characterization and risk assessment

The intensive use of pesticides such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and acaricides has been lead to ubiquitous contamination, being present not only in soils, water bodies and/or crops, but also in the atmosphere. Considering the massive amount of pesticides employed globally, together to their persistence, this may be an important concern regarding air quality and human health worldwide. In the present study we developed a green sensitive sample preparation method for determination of nine organophosphates, two pyrethroids, one carbamate, and one strobirulin in PM2.5 collected in a tropical coastal area in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. Extraction of PM2.5 sample masses, as low as 206 µg, were performed in a miniaturized device using 500 μL of a mixture containing 18% acetonitrile in dichloromethane followed by sonication for 23 minutes and injection into GC-MS. A total of 12 pesticides were identified and quantified successfully, among them, eight banned pesticides. A risk assessment exposure and cancer risk for possible carcinogenic pesticides (bifenthrin, malathion, parathion and permethrin) were performed for exposure of adults, children and infants. Hazard Quotient and cumulative exposure for organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides were less than 1, showing that cumulative risk is within acceptable range.