A multiresidue method for determination of trace levels of pesticides in air and water

A multiresidue analytical method is described for the analysis of 13 pesticides in fogwater, rainwater, gas, and particles. This method is based upon solid-liquid extraction using Sep-Pak(TM) C-t(18) light cartridges for aqueous samples, soxhlet for gas (adsorbed on XAD-2(R)) and particles (on glass fiber filters), HPLC-based fractionation of the extracted residues using a silica column, and a linear gradient of n-hexane/tert butyl methyl ether followed by GC-ECD and HPLC-UV analyses of each fraction. Prior to analysis with GC-ECD, a methylation procedure using BF3/methanol was developed for the analysis of the fraction which contains chlorophenoxy acid herbicides. The recoveries of the extraction procedure of liquid samples and of the methylation were greater than 92 and 97% with a standard deviation lower than 8 and 5%, respectively. The detection limits varied between 0.1 and 0.01 mu g . ml(-1) for the 13 pesticides studied with a standard deviation less than 9%. This method was used for the determination of pesticides in 18 fogwater samples (soluble + insoluble), 31 rainwater samples, and 17 air (gas + particles) samples collected between 1991 and 1993 in Colmar (east of France).