Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
treatments, but pest control operations in buildings also contribute to outdoor contamina-
tion. The latter can be tracked in by shoes, clothes, and air drift (Thompson et al. 2003).
Contamination of the aquatic environment by chlorinated hydrocarbons is of great con-
cern because their residues reside in multiple compartments of the aquatic ecosystem. OCs
share common physical and chemical properties, such as high chemical stability, interac-
tivity, appreciable volatility at ambient temperatures, low water solubility, and high lipid-
water partition coefficients (Mackay and Leeinonen 1975). Because of these characteristics,
the OC compounds are well known for environmental persistence, their presence in sur-
face waters and groundwater, their ubiquitous distribution throughout the world, and
accumulation in fat reserves of marine and terrestrial organisms.
Once a pesticide is released into an aquatic ecosystem, it rapidly distributes preferen-
tially between different compartments of this aquatic ecosystem. Studies conducted on
different aquatic ecosystems in Egypt, for example, revealed that the accumulation pattern
for pesticides (and heavy metals) in different ecosystem compartments has the following
hierarchy: sediment > fish > water (Badawy et al. 1984; Mansour et al. 2001a; Mansour and
Sidky 2002; Mansour 2006).
The presence of pesticide residues is not confined to inhabited continents. Hoferkamp
et al. (2010) reviewed the levels of selected current use pesticides (CUPs) that have been
identified and reported in Arctic media (i.e., air, water, sediment, and biota) since the year
2000. Almost all of the 10 CUPs (chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, dacthal, diazinon, dicofol,
lindane, methoxychlor, pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB), pentachlorophenol, and tri-
fluralin) examined in the review currently are, or have been, high production volume
chemicals globally. Characteristic travel distances for the 10 chemicals range from 55 km
(methoxychlor) to 12,100 km (PCNB). Surveys and long-term monitoring studies have dem-
onstrated the presence of 9 of the 10 CUPs in the Arctic environment. Only dicofol has not
been reported. The presence of these chemicals has mainly been reported in high-volume
air samples and in snow from Arctic ice caps and lake catchments. There are many other
CUPs registered for use, which have not been determined in the Arctic environments. The
discovery of the CUPs currently measured in the Arctic has been mainly serendipitous,
a result of analyzing some samples using the same suite of analysts as used for studies
in midlatitude locations. A more systematic approach is needed to assess whether other
CUPs might be accumulating in the Arctic and ultimately to assess whether their presence
has any significance biologically or results in risks for human consumers.
15.2.3 Indoor Pesticide Contamination
Pesticides also contaminate the indoor environment, as a consequence of indoor as well
as outdoor uses, for occupational and residential purposes. Domestic pesticide uses
include pet treatments, extermination of household pests, removal of lice, and garden
and lawn treatments. In a French pilot study, the pesticide exposure of nonoccupation-
ally exposed subjects compared with some occupational exposure was investigated
(Bouvier et al. 2006). Thirty-eight insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides were measured
in indoor air with an air sampler for 24 h and on hands by wiping them with isopro-
panol-wetted swabs. Seventeen different pesticides were detected at least once in indoor
air and twenty-one pesticides were detected on the hands. An average of 4.2 ± 1.7 dif-
ferent pesticides were detected per indoor air sample. The OCs, lindane, α-endosulfan,
and α-hexachlorocyclohexanes (α-HCHs) were the most frequently detected compounds in
97%, 69%, and 38% of the samples, respectively. The organophosphates dichlorvos and fen-
thion, the carbamate propoxur, and the herbicides atrazine and alachlor were detected in
Search WWH ::
Custom Search