Comparative study of organic contaminants in agricultural soils at the archipelagos of the Macaronesia

Andrea Acosta-Dacal; María Eugenia Hernández-Marrero; Cristian Rial-Berriel; Ricardo Díaz-Díaz; María Del Mar Bernal-Suárez; Manuel Zumbado; Luis Alberto Henríquez-Hernández; Luis D Boada; Octavio P Luzardo

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.118979

Comparative study of organic contaminants in agricultural soils at the archipelagos of the Macaronesia

Environ Pollut. 2022 May 15:301:118979. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.118979. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

Authors

Andrea Acosta-Dacal¹, María Eugenia Hernández-Marrero¹, Cristian Rial-Berriel¹, Ricardo Díaz-Díaz², María Del Mar Bernal-Suárez², Manuel Zumbado³, Luis Alberto Henríquez-Hernández³, Luis D Boada³, Octavio P Luzardo³

Affiliations

¹ Toxicology Unit, Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences (IUIBS), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Paseo Blas Cabrera s/n, 35016, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
² Department of Environmental Analysis, Technological Institute of the Canary Islands, C/ Los Cactus no 68 35118, Polígono Industrial de Arinaga, Agüimes, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain.
³ Toxicology Unit, Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences (IUIBS), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Paseo Blas Cabrera s/n, 35016, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; Spanish Biomedical Research Center in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERObn), 28029, Madrid, Spain.

PMID: 35150798
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.118979

Abstract

The occurrence of organic pollutants in soil is a major environmental concern. These compounds can reach the soil in different ways. Point sources, related to pesticides that are used intentionally, can be applied directly to the soil, or reach the soil indirectly due to application to the aerial parts of crops. On the other hand, non-point sources, which reach soils collaterally during irrigation and/or fertilization, or due to the proximity of plots to industrialized urban centers. Long-range transport of global organic pollutants must also be taken into account. In this study, 218 pesticides, 49 persistent organic pollutants, 37 pharmaceutical active compounds and 6 anticoagulant rodenticides were analyzed in 139 agricultural soil samples collected between 2018 and 2020 in the Macaronesia. This region comprised four inhabited archipelagos (Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and Madeira) for which agriculture is an important and traditional economic activity. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the levels of organic compound contamination of agricultural soils of the Macaronesia. As expected, the most frequently detected compounds were pesticides, mainly fungicides and insecticides. The Canary Islands presented the highest number of residues, with particularly high concentrations of DDT metabolites (p,p' DDE: 149.5 ± 473.4 ng g^-1; p,p' DDD: 16.6 ± 35.6 ng g^-1) and of the recently used pesticide fenbutatin oxide (302.1 ± 589.7 ng g^-1). Cape Verde was the archipelago with the least contaminated soils. Very few pharmaceutical active compounds have been detected in all archipelagos (eprinomectin, fenbendazole, oxfendazole and sulfadiazine). These results highlight the need to promote soil monitoring programs and to establish maximum residue limits in soils, which currently do not exist at either continental or local level.

Keywords: Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs); Compounds of emerging concern (CECs); Environmental monitoring; Persistent organic pollutants (POPs); Pesticides; Pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs).

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene
Environmental Monitoring
Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated* / analysis
Pesticides* / analysis
Soil / chemistry
Soil Pollutants* / analysis

Substances

Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated
Pesticides
Soil
Soil Pollutants
Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene