Analytical aspects for the improvement of controls of glyphosate in Argentina

BELDOMÉNICO, HORACIO R.; REPETTI, MARÍA ROSA; DE JESÚS, JUAN JOSÉ; DEMONTE, LUISINA DELMA; MICHLIG, NICOLÁS

Viena

Workshop; 9th European Pesticide Residue Workshop; 2012

The non-selective, post emergence herbicide ?glyphosate?, as a general denomination to the products with the i.a. N-(phosphonomethyl)-glycine, is used as a key aid in the current innovative agro-technical practices, that in Argentina led to the explosive successful expansion of crop production during last decade (102.8 million tons of grains in agricultural cycle 2010/2011). This new paradigmatic strategy that includes significant technologies advances in most fields (agriculture ?slit seeding, agro-chemicals, biotechnology, agro-machinery, etc.), brought as counterpart, a need to give enhanced attention to know and control the effects of such huge transformation on population health, food and environment. Those different fields did not show comparable or equilibrated advances or development. For this reason severe controversies exist in Argentinean administration and public opinion regarding the effectiveness of legislation, and the activity of principal responsible actors to guarantee the desired aims of sustainability. As a result, a considerable increase of society demands, claiming for better protection regulations and actions, through legal trails and public expressions, that included the scientific community, have been verified. A Justice Curt leading case in Santa Fe Province, about health damages in population surrounding soy fields, led to a report about toxicity of glyphosate and pesticides, produced by a especially convoked group of scientists at National University of Littoral in 2010-2011. The conclusions of this report, adding evidences to previous diagnostics in same direction, defined a conjunct of actions to be considered in short and long term in the region of influence and the whole country. The need of specific studies and controls in food and environment, with aid of up-to-date technologies, is one of the outstanding proposals. In this scenario the contribution of analytical chemistry of pesticides is relevant and oriented several new activities of our laboratory supported in specific research projects. This presentation firstly summarize the mentioned report conclusions, with remarks on its importance to the improvement of the pesticide control system, and secondly describes the analytical approaches in our laboratory, to analyze glyphosate, metabolites and other related compounds in food and environmental samples, focusing in the methodologies. The development of a chromatographic-mass spectrometric (UHPLC MSMS) method for the determination of glyphosate and metabolites in water, with studies of alternatives in FMOC derivatization and preconcentration step, and its application to selected regional underground water samples are described.