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Contents and sources of DDT impurities in dicofol formulations in Turkey
Cafer Turgut1, Cengiz Gokbulut, Teresa J Cutright
1Faculty of Agriculture, Adnan Menderes University, 09100, Aydin, Turkey. cturgut@adu.edu.tr
Background, Aim, And Scope:
Dicofol is widely used as a pesticide in agriculture applications. Since dicofol is mainly synthesized from dichlorodiphenyltrichlorethane (DDT), it contains DDT as an impurity. The European Community has forced Prohibition Directive 79/117/EEC to reduce DDT in dicofol formulations. Specifically, DDT content in a dicofol formulation cannot exceed 0.1%. The goal of this project was to determine the DDT content in dicofol formulations used in Turkey.
Materials And Methods:
Samples of all the dicofol formulations in Turkey were collected to quantify DDT and DDT-related compounds. Four replicates were used for each sample. GC/MS/MS was used to analyze p,p' and o,p' isomers of DDT, DDD, and DDE. A HPLC was used to determine p,p'-Cl-DDT concentrations.
Results:
The total DDT content of the formulated dicofol was found between 0.3% and 14.3%. The concentration of p,p'-DDE ranged from 167 to 1,042 mg kg(-1) in dicofol samples. p,p'-DDT concentrations were found to be 32 to 183 mg kg(-1). The o,p'-DDT level ranged from 2 to 34 mg kg(-1) in the dicofol formulations analyzed.
Discussion:
It was estimated that 617.8 kg of DDT was released from dicofol. The main impurity was identified as p,p-Cl-DDT. Based on these results, dicofol serves as a continuing source of DDT contamination.
Conclusions:
All DDT concentrations in dicofol samples analyzed were higher than the permitted 0.1% level of Prohibition Directive 79/117/EEC. The reduction of dicofol is critical since it serves as a continual source of DDT contamination.
Recommendations And Perspectives:
DDT has been found in soil, water, and air samples. Dicofol has been identified as a contributor to continued DDT contamination in soil and water. More studies are needed to ascertain the source of DDT in the air.
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