Analysis of pesticide residues in Peninsular Malaysian waterways

Abstract

The use of organochlorine pesticides has caused concern due to their effects on human health and the Malaysian aquatic ecosystem, particularly so in view of their persistent and bioaccumulative properties. Since the extent of organochlorine pesticide pollution in Malaysian waterways is unknown except for isolated instances, a systematic survey has now been carried out. Water samples from various rivers were extracted, cleaned up with Florisil and analysed for the individual organochlorine pesticides by gas chromatography (GC) with an electron capture detector (ECD). DDE, DDT and heptachlor were present in all the river water samples of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Other organochlorine pesticides were also identified from the water samples. However, the levels of all these are still below criteria values for Malaysian aquatic life, indicating that organochlorine pesticide pollution is less of a problem than other organic or inorganic pollutants.

Assessment of organochlorine pesticides and plasticisers in the Selangor River basin and possible pollution sources

“…In addition, concentrations of total DDTs were lower than the 29.3 to 147 ng/L detected during the rainy season in 2002 (Leong et al 2007) and the 110 ng/L detected previously at Selangor River (Tan and Vijayaletchumy 1994). However, the concentrations of total DDTs in this study were slightly higher than the concentration reported in an earlier study by Tan et al (1991). Furthermore, while endrin, dieldrin, o,p′-DDD and p,p′-DDE were detected occasionally, heptachlor, aldrin, o,p′-DDE and o,p′-DDT were not detected in any of the samples although were previously detected in water and sediment samples from this basin (Leong et al 2007;Zakaria et al 2003).…”