ABSTRACT
Organochlorine pesticides refer to all chlorine-containing organics used for pest control. Many chlorinated pesticides that were commonly used in the past are no longer being used now, because of their harmful toxic effect on humans and the contamination of the environment. Many such pesticides and their residues are still found in the environment in trace quantities in groundwater, soil, sediments, and wastewater. These substances are stable, bioaccumulative, and toxic, and some are also carcinogens. Chlorinated pesticides in aqueous and nonaqueous matrices may be determined by US EPA Methods 608, 625, 505, 508, 8080, and 8270. Analysis of these pesticides requires the extraction of the aqueous or nonaqueous samples by a suitable organic solvent, concentration, and cleanup of the extracts, and the determination of the analytes in the extracts, usually by GC-ECD or GC/MS. The chapter outlines these steps in detail. It presents the distribution patterns for the pesticides in the Florisil column fractions.
