Use of pesticide has become part of modern day agricultural practice. Some pesticides can remain in the environment for decades and contaminate surface water that is used for irrigation of produce. Two studies were conducted- first to examine possible pesticide residue in surface water and some fruits, vegetables and cereals in Louisiana; and second was to alleviate possible pesticide residues in the water using zeolite filtration. Samples of 8 foods (tomato, corn, rice, blueberry, cucumber, cabbage, wheat and melon) and 35 surface waters were studied using a QuEChERS extraction method for food samples and an EPA method for the water samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze water and food samples. Alleviation of pesticide residues was attempted for 10 water samples using a natural zeolite filtration. One water sample was filtered through a surfactant (HDTMA-Cl)-modified-zeolite. Eighteen pesticides were detected in the surface water samples and 5 in the food samples. Pesticides detected were below FDA limit but 0.18 ppm cypermethrin found in tomato was 90 % close to the FDA limit (0.2 ppm). Alleviation was achieved in 9 water samples out of 10 samples that were filtered through zeolite. The highest removal of pesticides from water with zeolite was 100 % in bifenthrin in CLC sample, followed by 99.1 % in atrazine in the same sample. Minimum reduction of 10.9 % was in metolachlor in sample BRH. Further reduction of pesticide residues up to 50 % was recorded in the SMZ treatment as the concentrations of 4 out of 8 pesticide residues were reduced. This study suggests the need to intermittently monitor pesticide contamination in our food and water.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-06172016-100051 |
| Date | 15 July 2016 |
| Creators | Adeniyi, Olubode James |
| Contributors | LeBlanc, Mark, King, Joan, Janes, Marlene, Miller, James |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06172016-100051/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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