Monitoring of Pesticides in Drinking, Surface and Ground Water of Cyprus by Liquid-Liquid and Solid Phase Extraction in Combination with GC/MS and UPLC/MS/MS

Pesticides having different structures and biological activities are widely used for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes throughout the world. Monitoring of pesticides in water contribute to the protection of human health and the protection of environment too. Analysis of a big number of water samples each year is revealed a clear image for pollution by pesticides. Twenty-four pesticides are monitored in drinking, surface and ground waters of Cyprus according to the European legislation. During the last 4 years (2013-2016) 2860 samples were analysing using two different techniques of extraction and determination. Pesticides were separated at two groups according to their polarity and stability and determined using GC/MS and UPLC/MS/MS. The limit of quantification is 0.01 μg/L for those determined with UPLC/MS/MS and 0.01 - 0.03 μg/L for those determined with GC/MS. The results revealed that only 1.5% of the samples analysed found to contain some of these compounds at concentration over the limit of quantification. Only nine of the pesticides were found at the samples and those with the highest frequency were Chloropyrifos, Prosulfocarb and Simazine.