Occurrence, impacts and general aspects of pesticides in surface water: A review
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Agriculture is vital for human survival since this activity produces food, and population growth places an ever-increasing demand on food production supported by this activity (Sadowski and Baer-Nawrocka, 2018). Among the many intense processes related to agriculture, the use of chemicals to control pests and weeds, and enhance food production is a significant one (Alletto et al., 2010; Rice et al., 2007). These pesticides not only affect the target organisms, they affect the whole environment, including the atmosphere, soil, groundwater, and surface water by flow, leaching, and pulverisation processes (Nsibande and Forbes, 2016), thus contaminating the ecosystem (Taha et al., 2014).
Schulz (2004) estimated that 10 % of pesticides applied to the soil reach non-target areas, especially along the edges of fields. These wasted fractions can be greater if it rains right after pesticide application. The presence of pesticides in ecosystems have adverse effects which vary with the contaminant concentration, amount, and exposure time (Margni et al., 2002; Rice et al., 2007). Furthermore, pesticides are considered extremely toxic because they persist in the environment and accumulate in organisms (Araújo et al., 1999; Glynn et al., 1995; Olafson, 1978; Porter et al., 2018). In addition, these contaminants present detrimental effects to human beings and can cause severe health problems such as cancer, infertility, malformation, and chromosomal changes as a consequence DNA mutation and oxidative stress, both of which are related to ageing and diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's (Bolognesi, 2003; Sabarwal et al., 2018; Salvagni et al., 2010).
For those reasons, these contaminants should be removed from the environment, especially from water in order to ensure quality drinking water and promote public health (Mekonen et al., 2016). Nevertheless, according to Abdel Aal et al. (2001), the majority of pesticides are not easily biodegradable, thus they cannot be removed in conventional drinking water treatment plants (DWTP) which employ only basic treatment methods. To remove these contaminants from water, advanced processes such as gamma irradiation (Abdel Aal et al., 2001; Khedr et al., 2019), bioremediation (Gavrilescu, 2005), membrane filtration (Nikbakht Fini et al., 2019), advanced oxidation processes (Ballesteros Martín et al., 2008), ozonisation (Cruz-Alcalde et al., 2017), and adsorption (Derylo-Marczewska et al., 2019) should be used.
To choose a suitable treatment technique, it is necessary to understand the characteristics and aspects of the contaminant to be removed (Rodriguez-Narvaez et al., 2017). For that, knowledge of the general aspects of pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides as surface water contaminants is imperative.
Therefore, the aim of this review article is to highlight the main aspects of pesticides in the environment such as their occurrence in surface water around the world from 2012 to 2019, the general characteristics of these compounds, the environmental risks and adverse effects of these compounds in ecosystems, especially in aquatic media, as well as to express the need for suitable treatment to provide water for human consumption. First, the general aspects of pesticides are addressed. Next, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, mixtures, and the problems they pose are described in separate sections. Finally, the impacts of each class of pesticides on the environment is considered and the topic of water treatment is mentioned, in order to provide quality drinking water.
Section snippets
Pesticides
Pesticides are mixtures of chemical compounds which aim to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate organisms responsible for problems in agriculture, especially microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and viruses), insects, animals, and vegetals (weeds), which are collectively known as plagues. In addition, pesticides can also be used as a plant regulator (to stimulate or retard plant growth), a defoliant (causing the leaves or foliage to drop), a desiccant (to artificially accelerate the drying of plant
Mixtures of pesticides
It is well known that mixtures of various pesticides are found in the environment. Mixtures of two or more pesticides react and/or form a complex substance that may express properties unique to that combination. This is a common situation where the application of several different pesticides vary according to the crop type, problem (plauge), and required concentrations (Gilliom et al., 2006).
The climatic season, rain intensity, field characteristics, and soil properties all interfere and/or aid
Drinking water treatment
According to Mekonen et al. (2016), access to clean and safe drinking water is essential for human health. For this reason, water treatments able to remove contaminants such as pesticides are essential as well.
Conventional water treatment steps include the input of water from the water body or bodies into a DWTP where the raw water is treated. The DWTP, performs the following functions: coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, pH correction, and fluoridation. After that, the
Conclusion
Although pesticides are applied to the soil, these substances can be transported over long distances through evaporation and precipitation. In addition, pesticides also reach water bodies by surface runoff and by percolation through the soil and into the groundwater. In this way, many compounds have been detected in high concentrations in surface waters worldwide.
A review of pesticide monitoring studies of surface waters worldwide show a critical occurrence of atrazine and its metabolites,
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the Brazil and Higher Education Personnel Improvement (CAPES) and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for financial support of this study.
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