A Dieldrin Case Study: Another Evidence of an Obsolete Substance in the European Soil Environment

Abstract

Soil constitutes a central environmental compartment that, due to natural and anthropogenic activities, is a recipient of several contaminants. Among them, organochlorine pesticides are of major concern, even though they have been banned decades ago in the European Union, due to their persistence and the health effects they can elicit. In the presented work, a gas chromatographic tandem mass spectrometric (GC-MS/MS) developed method was applied to soil samples after the suspected and potential use of formulations containing organochlorine active substance. One soil sample was positive to dieldrin at 0.018 mg kg−1. Predicted environmental concentration in soil (PECsoil) considering a single application of this active substance potentially attributed the finding in its past use. The subsequent health risk assessment showed negligible non-carcinogenic risk and tolerable carcinogenic risk. The latter signifies that repetitive and prolonged sampling can unveil the pragmatic projection of persistent chemicals’ residues in the soil.