Monitoring of Endocrine Disruptor-suspected Pesticide Residues in Greenhouse Soils and Evaluation of Their Leachability to Groundwater

International Ginseng and Herb Research Institute, Geumsan 312-804This study was carried out to survey the residual characteristics of endocrine disruptor (ED)-suspected pesticides in greenhouse soils and assess their leachabilites to groundwater. Greenhouse soils were collected from 40 sites of greenhouse in 2008 in Korea. Sixteen ED-suspected pesticides which had been using in Korea, such as alachlor, benomyl, carbaryl, cypermethrin, 2,4-D, dicofol, endosulfan, fenvalerate, malathion, mancozeb, metribuzin, metiram, methomyl, parathion, trifluralin, and vinclozolin, in the soils, were analyzed by chromatographic methods using GLC-ECD and HPLC-DAD/FLD. Limits of detection (LODs) of the test pesticides ranged from 0.0004 to 0.005 mg/kg. Recoveries of the target pesticides from soil ranged from 72.69 to 115.28%. Four pesticides including cypermethrin were detected in the range of from 0.001 to 2.019 mg/kg, representing that their detection rate from greenhouse soils was 37.5%. The highest detection rate was observed from endosulfan which was detected from 16 site soils of the total samples, indicating that endosulfan is persistent in soil because of its very low mobility and high adsorption characteristics in soil. Based on the groundwater ubiquity scores (GUSs) of the pesticides detected from greenhouse soils, most of them have little possibilities of groundwater contamination except the fungicide vinclozolin with some leaching potential because of high water solubility and very low soil adsorption property.