Quantitation of Pesticide Residue in Water and Food in Louisiana, USA

Abstract

Pesticides can remain in the environment for decades and contaminate surface water that is used for irrigation of produce. This study examined pesticide residues in some surface waters and foods in Louisiana. Samples of 8 foods (tomato, corn, rice, blueberry, cucumber, cabbage, wheat and melon) and 35 surface waters were studied using a QuEChERS extraction method for food samples and liquid-liquid extraction method for the water samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze water and food samples. Nine pesticides were detected in the surface water samples and 5 in the food samples. Pesticides detected in foods were below FDA tolerance limit but 0.18 ppm cypermethrin found in tomato was within 90% of the FDA limit (0.2 ppm). Four water samples had atrazine levels that were above the FDA limit for potable water. This study suggests the need to intermittently monitor pesticide contamination in our food and water.

Sojourners in a New Land: Hope and Adaptive Traditions

“…I had to move my mama since that is all she had to drink." 15 Safe clean water is clearly essential to basic health standards (Steingraber 1998), yet water required for daily use may be one of the state's biggest challenges (Adeniyi et al 2016). The now-closed England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana, is an EPA superfund site that has the highest detected deadly PFAS 16 levels in groundwater of any PFAS contamination site in the nation.…”

“…28 Events that bring a mixture of backgrounds together help people become less apprehensive of other cultures, customs, and practices and lay a strong foundation for trust. 29…”

Alleviation of Pesticide Residue in Surface Water

“…The criterion used in selecting those 10 samples was the water samples that had the most pesticide residues based on the results from a similar study [17]. As shown in Figure 1, each of the 3 compartments of the water filtration system used to filter surface water samples from top to bottom contained 20 g each, of gravel, sand and Zeolite.…”

“…GC-MS analysis was the same as earlier described [17]. On column concentration of the samples were calculated.…”

“…The method used for pesticide residue extraction in surface water is same as earlier described [17]. Analyte samples, positive and negative controls were prepared in 2 replicates in vials and analyzed.…”