Document Type : Pest Management
Authors
Abstract
Due to various economical and health drawbacks of high pesticide residue levels, monitoring them on food stuff is very important. In the greenhouses of Isfahan province various pesticides are being used of which highest consumption and toxicity is of the insecticides, therefore presence of high residue levels on their products is not far from expectation. To trace the residue levels of four insecticides (Dichlorovus, Deltamethrin, Imidacloprid and Pymetrozine) on cucumber, samples were collected every thirty days from the greenhouses of four cities, Falavarjan (4 greenhouses), Esfahan (4 greenhouses), Dehaghan (2 greenhouses) and Shahreza (2 greenhouses) during the cultivation season. A total of 192 samples (combination of greenhouse, Insecticide, City) were collected and analyzed. Samples collected from Isfahan city showed levels of Dichlorovus, Deltamethrin, Imidacloprid and Pymetrozine to be 70, 55, 12 and four times the Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) respectively. Similarly high levels of Dichlorovus and Imidacloprid were detected on the samples of other cities. Percentages of highly contaminated samples with all four insecticides in different cities were 34, 39, 34 and 46 for Isfahan, Falavarjan, Shahreza and Dehaghan cities respectively. Therefore it is clear that all the cities have about 35-45 percent of their cucumber samples under investigation having insecticide residue levels higher than the MRLs. Overall the results show that in Isfahan, Falavarjan, Shahreza and Dehaghan about 33, 33, 35 and 41 percent of the samples analyzed have higher levels of one or more insecticides checked higher than the MRLs respectively. Therefore consumption of this produce could be a threat to the health of the consumers.
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