Investigation and probabilistic health risk assessment of pesticide residues in cucumber, tomato, and okra fruits from Khuzestan, Iran.

In this study, 30 pesticide residues in 45 fresh-eating cucumber, tomato, and okra fruit samples collected from the Khuzestan province as the main agricultural products in Iran using the QuEChERS extraction method were analyzed. In addition, noncarcinogen and carcinogen health risk assessments were evaluated. Results indicated that 93% of cucumber samples had at least one pesticide, of course, less than the maximum residue limit (MRL). All tomato and okra fruit samples were contaminated by diazinon. All pesticides detected in tomato samples were below national MRL except for thiamethoxam in four samples. In okra fruit samples, all detected diazinon and malathion, but only tebuconazole fungicide exceeded MRL. In addition, the hazard index (HI) was 0.23 and 1.06 in cucumber samples, 0.33 and 1.51 in tomato samples, and 5.5E-03 and 0.025 in okra fruit samples in adults and children, respectively. The use of cucumber and tomato may have notable risks in the short term in children group age. Ranking based on total CR was 1.2E-05 in tomato, 7.7E-06 for cucumber, and in okra 9.1E-11 because of the difenoconazole residue. However, significant carcinogenic risk threatens cucumber and tomato consumers.

Solid phase extraction-preconcentration and high performance liquid chromatographic determination of 2-mercapto-(benzothiazole, benzoxazole and benzimidazole) using copper oxide nanoparticles.

This study introduces a novel method of solid phase extraction (SPE), preconcentration and HPLC determination of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (2MBI), 2-mercaptobenzoxazole (2MBO) and 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (2MBT) from an aqueous solution by a SPE cartridge loaded with copper oxide nanoparticles. Results demonstrated that copper oxide nanoparticles are quite efficient for extraction and preconcentration of trace amounts of these mercaptans at room temperature. The study also investigated the effects of parameters such as pH, buffer and its volume, electrolyte concentration, flow rate of the test solution, composition and volume of the desorbing solvent, accepted tolerable volume, amount of adsorbent, reusability of cartridges and evidence of some co-existing species on extraction and determination of the above mentioned mercaptans. The method showed good linearity for determination of these mercaptans in the range of 0.01-10 µg mL(-1) with regression coefficients better than 0.9969. The limits of detection (LODs) evaluations were 0.0021, 0.0027 and 0.0019 µg mL(-1) for 2MBT, 2MBO and 2MBI, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) for 0.2 µg mL(-1) and 5 µg mL(-1) of the measured mercaptans were below 3.04% and 4.23%, respectively. Ramin Power Plant (3000 MW, Ahvaz, Iran) cooling water containing some 2MBT (as corrosion inhibitor) was used as the real sample. Recovery tests with spiked levels of 2MBT, 2MBI and 2MBO were carried out and satisfied results were obtained.