MIMOZA MUKAJ, SOFIANA MAI, MAGDALENA CARA, THANAS RUCI
Albanian Customs Laboratory, General Customs Directory
Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana
Institute of Food Safety and Veterinary
*Corresponding author; E-mail: mimoza.mukaj@yahoo.com
Abstract
Over the past century, there has been a wide use of pesticides in agricultural products. However, only 10 % of pesticides reach the target, and the other part is spreaded in the air, soil and water. Although, pesticides save farmers’ time and money, they are known for having negative effects on human health and environment, while the soil contamination with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) pesticides is very alarming. It is evident, that due to its large retention capacity for hydrophobic compounds, soil is used as an effective sink for POPs pesticides and it plays an important role in the global distribution and fate of these chemicals. The soil properties, like pH and temperature, influence the degradation rates of pesticides. The most favourable soil pH for the best degradation of pesticides is around 7.
The goal of this paper is to study the correlation between soil pH and the concentration of POPs pesticides. In this study we have included some farms of agricultural areas in Albania. A total of 72 samples were collected in the period of June – December 2015. We have determined the pH of soil with pH meter and POPs pesticide residues with Gas chromatography techniques. The values of pH ranged from 5.7 to 8.34, and the values of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane(DDT) residues ranged from 0.1 to 220.69 µg/kg. From this study resulted that in general, in soils with pH < 7, the concentration of DDT was lower than the concentration of DDT in soils with pH > 7.
Keywords: POPs pesticides; pH – meter; Gas chromatography.
