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Residues of organochlorine pesticides in surface soil and raw foods from rural areas of the Republic of Tajikistan
Citation:
Barron, M., Z. Ashurova, M. Kukaniev, H. Avloev, K. Khaidarov, J. Jamshedov, O. Rahmatullova, S. Atolikshoeva, S. Mamadshova, AND O. Manzenyuk. Residues of organochlorine pesticides in surface soil and raw foods from rural areas of the Republic of Tajikistan. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 224:494-502, (2017).
Impact/Purpose:
Article reporting on chlorinated pesticide contamination in the central Asian Republic of Tajikistan. This work provides an important evaluation of the presence and transport of chlorinated insecticides, which may pose significant environmental and human health impacts where present.
Description:
The central Asian Republic of Tajikistan has been an area of extensive historical agricultural pesticide use as well as large scale burials of obsolete banned chlorinated insecticides. The current investigation was a four year study of legacy organochlorine pesticides in surface soil and raw foods in four rural areas of Tajikistan. The four study areas included the pesticide burial sites of Konibodom and Vakhsh, and family farms of Garm and Chimbuloq villages. These areas were selected to represent a diversity of pesticide disposal histories and to allow assessment of local pesticide contamination in Tajikistan. Each site was visited multiple times and over 500 samples of surface soil and raw foods were collected and analyzed for twenty legacy organochlorine pesticides. Various local food products were sampled to represent the range of raw foods potentially containing residues of banned pesticides, including dairy products, meat, edible plant and cotton seed products. The pesticide analytes included DDTs (DDT, DDD, DDE), lindane isomers (α, β, γ, δ BHC), endosulfan isomers (endosulfan I, II, sulfate), other cyclodienes (aldrin, α and γ chlordanes, dieldrin, endrin, endrin aldehyde and ketone, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide), and methoxychlor. Pesticide analytes were selected based on availability of commercial standards and known or suspected historical pesticide use and burial. Pesticide contamination was highest in soil at each of the four sites, and generally low in meat, dairy, and plant products. DDT was consistently the highest measured individual pesticide at each of the four sampling areas, along with BHC isomers and endosulfan II. At all four sites, seven of the twenty analytes were either not detected or only present at trace (<0.1 ppm) levels. Soil concentrations of pesticides were extremely heterogeneous at the Vakhsh and Konibodam disposal sites with many soil samples greater than 10 ppm. In contrast, samples from farms in Chimbuloq and Garm had low concentrations of pesticides. Pesticide contamination in raw foods was generally low, indicating minimal transfer from the pesticide sites into local food chains.
