Determination of organochlorines in soil of a suburban area of São Paulo Brazil

Abstract

Technological advances have promoted improvements in several science fields, especially related to environmental and analytical areas with the improvement of detection and development of environmentally friendly extraction techniques. This study applied Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe method (QuEChERS) for soil extraction and assessed its performance through a validation study using samples from the soil of a contaminated area in Caieiras, SP, Brazil. Nine organochlorine pesticides, including the isomers alpha, beta, gamma and delta- hexachlorocyclohexane; cis- and trans-heptachlor epoxide; cis- and trans-chlordane and heptachlor were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to electron capture detector. The method was validated according to ISO 5725-4 (2020), EURACHEM (2014) and DOQ-CGCRE-008 (2016). The limits of detection and quantification of the method for the nine organochlorines were α-HCH (1.2 and 12.6 µg kg−1), β-HCH (1.7 and 12.0 µg kg−1), γ-HCH (1.5 and 11.6 µg kg−1), δ-HCH (0.8 and 11.6 µg kg−1), heptachlor (1.0 and 10.8 µg kg−1), cis-heptachlor epoxide (0.9 and 11.5 µg kg−1), trans-heptachlor epoxide (0.9 and 11.5 µg kg−1), cis-chlordane (0.4 and 7.9 µg kg−1) and trans-chlordane (0.5 and 10.9 µg kg−1), respectively, and all of them were within the maximum limits recommended by the EPA for the compounds α-HCH (86.0 and 360.0 µg kg−1), β-HCH (300.0 and 1.3 × 103 µg kg−1), γ-HCH (570.0 and 2.5 × 103 µg kg−1), δ-HCH (not defined), heptachlor (130.0 and 630.0 µg kg−1), cis-/trans-heptachlor epoxide (7.0 and 330.0 µg kg−1), cis-/trans-chlordane (1.77 × 103 and 7.7 × 103 µg kg−1) in residential and industrial soil, respectively. Recovery results were between 65% and 105% for almost all compounds, which is an optimum result for multi-residue analytical methods, considering the complexity of the matrix used in the study. Caieiras presented contamination levels of α-HCH in the range of 2.0 to 66.0 µg g−1, which was higher than the limits established by EPA, corresponding to 0.077 µg g−1 for residential soil and 0.27 µg g−1 for industrial soil. According to the validation study, the analytical method proposed was reliable for organochlorine quantification, and the QuEChERS was considered efficient for organochlorine extraction from soil.