Distribution and Fate of Persistent Organochlorine Pesticides on the Soil-Forage-Milk Chain in Three Transylvanian Farms

Abstract

The present work follows the distribution and fate of persistent organochlorine pesticides on the soil-forage-milk chain in three Transylvanian farms. In order to achieve this goal, a new, rapid and affordable analytical method for the quantifications of organochlorine pesticides in milk samples was developed. The tracing of the persistent organochlorine pesticides in soil and milk was performed for each farm separately. On Farm 1, aldrin was identified to be the pesticide traced from soil to milk, while on Farm 2 and Farm 3, delta-benzene hexachloride (δ-BHC) was the dominant pesticide. All of the determined pesticide concentrations for the milk samples were found to be under the maximum residue limits for pesticides (MRLs) established for milk by the European Union (EU).

Keywords:

• Accelerated solvent extraction (ASE)
• forages
• gas chromatography with electron capture detector (GC-ECD)
• milk
• pesticides
• soil
• solid phase extraction (SPE)
• QuEChERS
• water

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Research and Innovation - MCI, Operational Program Competitiveness, POC Project 18/01.09.16, SMIS Code 105533 and AgroTransilvania Cluster through the project “AgroTransilvania Cluster - Cluster specialized in bioeconomy”, SMIS Code 104449.