Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: May | Volume: 8 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 265-271
Monitoring of Banned Organochlorine Pesticide Residues in Several Food Products from a Market in Shillong City, India Using Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry
Balawan Joshua Mawrie, Dr. Dibyendu Paul
Department of Environmental Studies, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong- 793022, Meghalaya, India.
Corresponding Author: Balawan Joshua Mawrie
ABSTRACT
Pesticides are used on a regular basis in the agricultural and health sectors to control pests and vector borne diseases. Although, pesticides have proved to be an important tool in the fight against pest infestation and spread of various diseases but at the same time these chemicals can pose a serious threat to human health, biodiversity and the environment as a whole. A certain group of pesticides which are categorized as organochlorines are known for their persistence in nature and have the ability to bio-accumulate. Some of these organochlorine pesticides are toxic and are even classified as probable and possible human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research in Cancer. It is for a number of reasons like these that several of them have been banned in many countries including India. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether the food that were sold in a market in Shillong City were contaminated or not by three banned organochlorine pesticides, namely, Dieldrin, Heptachlor and Endosulfan. In this study, samples of nine food products (apple, grapes, tomato, lettuce, potato, cabbage, wheat, rice and pulses) were collected from Iewduh Market and analysed for any contamination levels. The analysis was carried out by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry using standard operating procedures. The results of this study revealed that the residual levels of the pesticides that were studied were Below Detectable Limit (<0.1 mg/kg) in all the samples of the food products that were chosen for the purpose of this study.
Key words: Banned organochlorine pesticides, Dieldrin, Heptachlor and Endosulfan.