A study of the disappearance of pesticides during composting using a gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry technique

Dissipation and effect of glyphosate during composting of organic wastes

The addition of organic matter (OM) containing glyphosate during compost production, through the introduction of contaminated plant residues or sewage sludge, presents a risk of hindering the proper OM breakdown carried out by microorganisms and causing the accumulation of glyphosate or aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). To measure the effect of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) on OM decomposition as well as the dissipation of glyphosate to AMPA during composting, a controlled-environment experiment was conducted using mesocosm-scale vessels. Analytical-grade (AG) glyphosate (150 mg kg-1 ) and GBH (VisionMAX) equivalent to the amounts applied in agricultural areas (300 mg kg-1 ) were added to a mixture of green residues, which were then composted for 112 d. Sampling after 2, 7, 28, and 112 d showed a negligible effect of glyphosate and GBH on physicochemical properties of the mixture (temperature, OM%, pH, total carbon [C], total nitrogen [N], and C/N ratio), ammonification, nitrification, and phosphate content. No differences between AG glyphosate and GBH treatments were measured. Glyphosate levels decreased significantly after 2 d to reach 53.1 and 71.1% of the initial content for the AG glyphosate and GBH treatments, respectively, and glyphosate dissipation was almost complete after 112 d of composting. Aminomethylphosphonic acid could not be detected at any time during the experiment regardless of the treatment. Our results show that conditions for OM decomposition were maintained despite the addition of glyphosate and suggest that only trace amounts of glyphosate or AMPA are likely to be present in mature compost.

The potential environmental risks of the utilization of composts from household food waste

Modern technologies (especially with the help of autonomous measurement and control systems) introduced automatic composters for the disposal of household food waste production. Environmental risks connected with the utilization of these composts can be characterized by the high electrical conductivity caused by a presence of sodium chloride in food. Electrical conductivity influences the ecotoxicity of the composts. The presence of pesticides in composted food also represents an important environmental problem. The following pesticides were found in compost samples from household food waste: 1,3,5-triazine, methyl trithion, bifenthrin, bifenox, carbophenothion, pirimicarb, dioxacarb, desmetryn. Pesticide content in composts varied from 0.3 to 16.3 μg/kg, the average value being 30.4 ± 10.1 μg/kg dry matter. The higher decomposition was found of "modern" pesticides in the composters. The removal of salts can ensure that inhibition will be < 30% while washing with the ratio of 1:3 will result in the inhibition < 5%. However, this way of processing is not effective for other organisms-Poecilia reticulata (mortality 100%) and Daphnia magna (immobilisation 100%) using this procedure as well as washing of the compost in the ratio 3:1.

Development of a multi-residue screening method for the determination of pesticides in cereals and dry animal feed using gas chromatography–triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry

A multi-residue screening method for simultaneous analysis of 122 gas chromatography amenable pesticides in dry matrices such as cereal grain and certain feedingstuffs was developed. The method entails a simple extraction of re-hydrated sample with acetonitrile followed by a dispersive solid phase extraction (dispersive-SPE) clean-up step prior to the final determination by gas chromatography/triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Due to complexity of analyzed matrices, two MS/MS transitions were set for each pesticide to eliminate the need for re-analysis of potentially positive samples, and provide unequivocal identification of detected pesticides in accordance with recent guidelines, in a single analytical run. Thus, in the developed GC-MS/MS acquisition method, a total of 216 different multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) transitions were monitored in one set of experimental conditions. To evaluate performance of the method, validation experiments were carried out on wheat grain at three spiking levels (0.01, 0.02 and 0.05 mg kg(-1)). Additional recovery tests at 0.05 mg kg(-1) were carried out on several other matrices. The recoveries ranged between 73 and 129% with associated relative standard deviations between 1 and 29% for the majority of pesticides. Limits of detection were less or equal to 0.01 mg kg(-1) for approximately 68% of pesticides. The applicability of the proposed method to detect and quantify pesticide residues has been demonstrated in the analysis of 136 real samples. Additionally, the method was favorably compared with an acetone extraction method (accepted as a reference method by some of European and U.S. authorities) in the analysis of real samples known to contain pesticide residues.

Determination of organochlorine pesticides in sewage sludge by matrix solid-phase dispersion and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A method based on matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) has been developed for the determination of 16 organochlorine pesticides (OCs) in sludge from municipal sewage plants. Samples of lyophilized sludge were blended with alumina, placed in small columns and OCs extracted with dichloromethane assisted by sonication. Purification of the extracts was accomplished by solid-phase extraction on C(18) columns and OCs were eluted with acetonitrile. Analyses were performed by gas chromatography with electron impact mass spectrometric detection in the selected ion monitoring mode (GC-MS-SIM) using deuterated OCs as internal standards. The limits of detection were between 0.03 ng/g for 4,4'-DDE and 0.7 ng/g for endrin aldehyde. Levels of OCs were determined in sewage sludge collected from 19 water treatment plants located in the province of Madrid (Spain). In all of the analyzed samples, aldrin was the compound most often found with a mean concentration of 76 ng/g. Endosulfan-I, alpha-BHC, 4,4'-DDE and 4,4'-DDT were also present at high concentrations, with average values ranging from 32.3 to 74.3 ng/g. OCs were detected in all of the samples, with a total concentration ranging from 52 to 528 ng/g dry weight.

Fast and sensitive determination of pesticide residues in vegetables using low-pressure gas chromatography with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer

In this study, the feasibility of low-pressure gas chromatography (LP-GC) in conjunction with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, as a route towards fast pesticide residue analysis, was investigated. A Varian GC-MS system equipped with a mass spectrometer model 1200 was used. LP-GC-MS experiments were performed on a HP-5 10 m x 0.32 mm x 0.25 microm analytical column connected to a 2.5 m x 0.15 mm non-coated restriction precolumn at the inlet end. For comparison purposes conventional GC-MS analysis was performed on a RTX-5 30 m x 0.25 mm x 0.5 microm column. Under the optimized conditions the analysis time was reduced to 13.3 min with the LP-GC approach which corresponds to an almost threefold gain in speed versus the conventional GC (37 min). Despite the poorer separation power of the LP-GC column, the experiments conducted with tomato and onion extracts spiked with 78 pesticides proved that LP-GC-MS is of practical value to perform full scan screening analysis. Moreover, the rate of false negative results was higher in the case of conventional GC-MS while the LP-GC-MS enabled correct identification of pesticides at lower levels since the peaks were improved in both size and shape. Validation experiments were performed on a sample of 12 representative pesticides for comparison of performance characteristics of the LP-GC and GC approaches with mass spectrometer operated in scan, SIM and MS/MS mode. The LP-GC column set-up interfaced to the MS detector was found to be superior to the conventional GC with respect to obtained linearity, accuracy and precision parameters. Also, lower limits of detection in real extracts were achieved using the LP-GC approach. Finally, the LP-GC-MS/MS analysis of tomato samples with incurred pesticide residues demonstrated the applicability of the developed method for analysis of real samples.