Gas-phase concentrations of current-use pesticides in Iowa

Local and regional atmospheric transport of current-use pesticides is an important source of these compounds to nontarget plants and ecosystems. Current-use pesticides were measured at urban, rural, and suburban sites in eastern Iowa during 2000-2002. The most detected compounds were hexachlorobenzene and trifluralin, which were found in 89% and 78% of the samples, respectively. As expected, many pesticides showed a strong seasonal trend with the most detections and highest concentrations occurring during the spring and early summer. The average detected concentrations of five heavily used herbicides were 0.52 ng/ m3 for trifluralin, 4.6 ng/m3 for acetochlor, 2.3 ng/m3 for metolachlor, 1.1 ng/m3 for alachlor, 1.7 ng/m3 for pendimethalin, and 1.2 ng/m3 for atrazine. The most frequently detected insecticides were phorate and chlorpyrifos, which were found in 20% and 19% of the samples, respectively. The average phorate and chlorpyrifos concentrations were 25 ng/m3 and 1.0 ng/m3, respectively. The maximum phorate concentration, the highest measured for all pesticides, was 91.2 ng/m3. The most frequently detected current-use fungicides were chloroneb and etridiazole, which were found in 14% and 10% of the samples, respectively.