الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Egypt as a developing country uses several hundred tons of Organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) for the control of agricultural pests. Because malathion extensively used, it was detected in various aquatic environmental media, such as soil, sediment, water, and air. Therefore, the objective of the present work is the assessment the contributions of one of the widely used organophosphorus pesticides in Egypt (malathion) and other phosphorous forms along the upstream part of Umum Drain (UD) discharging into the coastal water of Alexandria City on the Mediterranean. Water and sediment samples were collected from representative sites along with the main UD, from its surrounding secondary drains and their discharge grouping sites at three pumping stations.The samples were collected seasonally (summer, autumn and winter, respectively), while surface sediments were collected once during the autumn season from the same sites as water collected. The water and sediment samples were subjected to two analytical protocols; spectrophotometric and GC-MS for the measurement of malathion levels in the samples. The main results indicated that the annual spatial range of Malathion along Umum Drain water was (14.41 to 31.24 nM) with an annual average of 20.07 nM. And the seasonal variations were (21.10, 19.00 and 18.45 nM) in autumn, summer and winter, respectively. Also, the spatial annual ratio of malathion to the total phosphorous in Umum Drain water was 0.06% at St.2 to 0.22% at St.6, with an annual average of 0.11 %. While the seasonal variation was (0.11 %, 0.10 % and 0.09 %) in autumn, summer and winter respectively. |