Determination of pesticides in natural waters using chromatographic methods
pesticides; emerging contaminants; agricultural
Recently, contaminants of emerging concern have gained prominence in discussions about the environmental sciences. The growing pressure on natural resources is mainly due to anthropogenic actions. These have potentiated ecosystem risks, especially with regard to the processes of bioaccumulation and biomagnification offered. Pesticides are a group of significant ECs, relatively stable and therefore susceptible to bioaccumulation. The continuous supply of pesticides, intensified by the modernization of agricultural fields, has enabled its dissemination in nature, with freshwater river ecosystems being the main sources of contamination. Commonly associated with high or pseudopersistence, they can travel long distances reaching different environmental matrices. Found in various forms, pesticides are determined by the environmental circumstances in which they are exposed, so that their physicochemical properties and characteristics of the surface that permeates them, such as UV irradiation, pH, temperature, precipitation, will influence their structure and products transformation generated. The present organic matter and suspended particulate matter can act as contaminant sorbents, which further increases the complexity of the studied matrix. Consequently, sample preparation becomes essential for a good analytical response to be obtained regardless of the technique employed for detection. In the Brazilian context, there is a shortage of legislation, guidelines that regulate and/or evaluate some chemical parameters in aqueous matrices, allowing the emergence of loopholes that weaken water control when thinking about limit values of organic standards and consequent monitoring of their quality. For this work, an art study was carried out on the determination of pesticides involving chromatographic techniques employed in different environmental matrices in Bahia and Brazil.