Abstract

ROJAS-FERNANDEZ, José Alberto; BENITEZ-DIAZ, Pedro Rafael; RIVAS-ROJAS, Edgard Alejandro  and  MIRANDA-CONTRERAS, Leticia. PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS OF LOS ZARZALES MICRO-WATERSHED, RIVAS DÁVILA MUNICIPALITY, MÉRIDA STATE, VENEZUELA. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2019, vol.35, n.2, pp.307-315.  Epub Feb 19, 2020. ISSN 0188-4999.  https://doi.org/10.20937/rica.2019.35.02.04.

There is a growing concern about the presence of pesticide residues in agricultural land because they constitute an environmental risk and a source of human exposure. In this work, the presence of these residues and the risk of exposure was determined in the micro-watershed of Los Zarzales, Rivas Dávila municipality, Mérida, Venezuela. Soil samples were taken in the initial, middle and final stages of short cycle crops, and the active ingredients were extracted and analyzed by HPLC. The risk of exposure was estimated by calculating the dose of pesticides through non-dietary intake of contaminated soil and dust, according to the US-EPA criteria. The highest concentration and variety of compounds was recorded during the middle stage: 26 ± 7 mg/kg of total residues and 100% detection frequency, standing out among them paraquat (15 ± 7 mg/kg), carbendazim (8 ± 2 mg/kg), mancozeb (3.7 ± 0.7 mg/kg) and carbofuran (1.2 ± 0.5 mg/kg). Based on these values, the calculated daily doses were 1.5, 0.8, 0.37 and 0.12 μg/day, respectively, all of which were below the admissible daily intake established by FAO/WHO, which is used as reference. Despite of this, the total dose reached 2.8 μg/day, which is considered as a risk of exposure.

Keywords : carbendazim; carbofuran; mancozeb; paraquat; agrochemicals.

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