Environmental exposure to residues after aerial spraying of endosulfan: residues in cow milk, fish, water, soil and cashew leaf in Kasargode, Kerala, India.

A detailed study has been conducted to evaluate the residues of endosulfan and its principal metabolite (alpha-endosulfan, beta-endosulfan and endosulfan sulfate) which may have accumulated in environmental samples due to regular aerial spray application of endosulfan on cashew leaf plantation for a period of 20 years. Three months after the last spray of endosulfan 350 g litre-1 EC at 300 ml acre-1 (equivalent to 105 g AI acre-1 = 42.5 g ha-1), a total of 93 samples of cow milk, fish, water, soil and dried cashew leaf were collected from a village in Kasargode District, Kerala, India, where endosulfan contamination was likely to have occurred. All the samples were analyzed for total residues of endosulfan (comprising alpha- and beta-endosulfan), endosulfan sulfate and also the potential hydrolysis product endosulfan diol, using gas chromatography with electron capture detection. The minimum detection limits of total endosulfan was 0.001 microgram g-1. Analysis of soil samples showed the deposition of total endosulfan residues in the range < 0.001-0.010 microgram g-1, and dried leaf samples showed residues of endosulfan in the range < 0.001-3.43 micrograms g-1 dry weight. In cow milk, fish and water, endosulfan residues could not be detected above the minimum detection limit. Endosulfan diol was not observed in any sample. The data obtained was confirmed by GC-MS-EI using selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode.