Research Publications (Food Safety)

In agriculture, there is a constant search for increased productivity, which leads to increased use of fungicides, insecticides, and inoculants, among other products to perform seed treatment before planting. After treatment, the machines and equipment are sanitized, generating a liquid residue with potentially negative environmental impacts.

Tricyclazole is a fungicide, widely used to control the blast disease of paddy. Parboiling, a step involved in the post-harvest processing of rice, releases fungicide residues, which enter water bodies and eventually reach aquatic organisms like fish. A preliminary analysis of the parboiled rice mill effluent showed the presence of the fungicide, Tricyclazole. In the present study, a 120-h bioassay was conducted to evaluate the effect of tricyclazole on A.

The irrational use of pesticides has raised a negative influence on the environment and food security. Therefore, it is imperative to comprehend the current status of pesticide residues in the soil for agricultural production and their impact on the ecological environment.

The current development model of the agricultural sector in Brazil has considerable potential to cause negative environmental impacts, including the pollution of aquatic ecosystems, as it may contribute to the intensification of erosive processes on deforested soils, to the leaching of eroded materials, and to the consequent siltation of waterbodies with soil particles containing environmental pollutants.

This paper describes a simple, quick, and solvent-free multi-residue method to determine 90 pesticides in groundwater samples from 30 different chemical groups. The extraction was carried out by solid-phase microextraction in direct immersion mode (DI-SPME) using a polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene fiber (65 µm thickness) followed by GC–MS detection.

The study reported here concerns the geochemical distributions of macro- and trace elements (including potentially toxic elements, PTEs) in the vineyard soils of Alcubillas, which is one of the oldest, albeit not world-renowned, wine-growing areas in La Mancha (Central Spain). Soil and leaf samples were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to ascertain the levels of various elements in the soil and the plant.

In today’s agriculture, the use of pesticides has become a necessity for higher yield of crops. Out of the total pesticides applied, only a small fraction reaches the target pest and the rest pollute different environmental segments. The present study signifies the effect of soil moisture and enhanced sunlight intensity on the degradation of dimethoate, a commonly used organophosphate pesticide in soil.

In today’s agriculture, the use of pesticides has become a necessity for higher yield of crops. Out of the total pesticides applied, only a small fraction reaches the target pest and the rest pollute different environmental segments. The present study signifies the effect of soil moisture and enhanced sunlight intensity on the degradation of dimethoate, a commonly used organophosphate pesticide in soil.

Nursery runoff may contain pesticide residues, which, if released off-site, could impair surrounding ecosystems. As a solution, nursery growers can retain runoff water on-site and recycle retained water to irrigate plants. However, concerns related to potential phytotoxicity caused by residual pesticides in recycled water can discourage growers from recycling water.

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Water is principally intended for direct consumption and for the production of food and beverages. It is also a valuable raw material in the industry. Despite the use of multi-stage treatment processes, the quality of drinking water may still be a concern in some countries due to the presence of toxic pollutants, often challenging to remove through the conventional treatment process.

Soil enzyme activities are often used as indicators of soil contamination. The responses of the activities of specific soil enzymes, dehydrogenase, acid phosphatase, β-glucosidase, carboxylesterase, and urease to different land uses (soybean and rice crops, and a reference site) were analyzed. Changes in activity at the start and end of each crop cycle were quantified. In general, the catalytic activity of all enzymes was lower in both crops than in the reference site.

Pesticide use generates wastewaters from its handling and from washing of spraying equipment, bringing concern about punctual discharge. Biobeds are biopurification systems for pesticide residues disposal, representing safe alternatives to avoid soil contamination. Peat that composes the original biomixture is not available all around Brazil.

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Sugarcane is a major crop in Brazil as well as other tropical areas. The rise of green cane systems that maintain straw on the soil surface after mechanical harvesting alongside extreme precipitation has changed the use and environmental fate of pesticides, mainly herbicides.

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In this study, a practical and excellent method was used to determine the famoxadone and cymoxanil via high-performance liquid chromatography equipped utilizing ultraviolet detector lamp (HPLC-UV) for investigating the dissipation behavior and residue distribution of famoxadone and cymoxanil in cucumber and soil ecosystem. The limit of quantification (LOQS) of famoxadone and cymoxanil in cucumber were 0.50, 1.00, 2.00 and 0.05, 0.50, 1.00 mg kg−1 in soil, respectively.

The uptake of organic pollutants by agricultural plants and their accumulation in edible parts cause serious health problems to animals and humans.

River Erguna is the Sino-Russian boundary river which has been widely concerned both by Russia and China due to the water quality and water resources management. As one class of persistent organic pollutants, no enough attention is paid to investigate the behavior characteristics and risk of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the rivers originated from forests and grasslands distributing in the middle-high latitude belts.

The aim of this study was to investigate, analyze, and compare applied techniques suitable for achieving efficient removal of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) (malathion and fenitrothion) from aqueous solutions and analyze the degradation products and processes. Pesticide degradation efficiency (%) was monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a photodiode array detector (DAD), while mineralization degree was determined by total organic carbon analysis (TOC).

Degradation-resistant chemical contaminants of health concern such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the environment are redistributed between different environmental compartments, where they partition between biotic heterotrophic routes and abiotic features (water and immobile soil components).

The main objective of this research was to study the feasibility of using algal and algal-activated sludge systems in treating laundry wastewater.

Summarized the heavy metal pollution caused by natural and human activities. The natural causes include the migration and redistribution of soil debris and the hydraulic migration of soil parent rock with high background value under the action of wind; human factors include mining, abandoned mining areas, fertilizer and pesticide application, and sewage irrigation.