Herbicide contamination of Batak plain agricultural soils and risk assessment

Herbicide residue levels were analyzed in agricultural soils of Batak plain and health risk assessments were made for relevant pesticides. Herbicide contamination levels were analyzed with the use of Quick-Easy-Cheap-Efficient-Rugged-Safe (QuEChERS)-liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) procedure. Herbicide-free soil samples were spiked at two different levels. Overall recovery of the method was 87.32%. Present findings were parallel to SANTE recovery limits. About 50% of collected samples from the study sites contained herbicides at different concentrations. Totally, eight herbicides were detected, and herbicide concentrations ranged between 1.085 and 1724.23 μg kg^-1. Metolachlor had the highest concentration (1724.23 μg kg^-1) in a sample taken close to the pesticide waste disposal area. Six herbicides were detected at different concentrations in the same sample. Persistent herbicides (terbuthylazine and pendimethalin) were detected in 35 samples. Risk assessments revealed that hazard index (HI) and hazard quotient (HQ) were less than 1. The greatest HQ values were identified for terbuthylazine as 2772.48 × 10^-7 and 20793.61 × 10^-7 for adults and children, respectively. The HI for all herbicides were 3916.05 × 10^-7 for adult and 29370.39 × 10^-7 for children.