Environmental testing to monitor agricultural chemicals
Solutions to reduce risks of pest and weed control chemicals
Testing for pesticides and herbicides is a key priority in environmental chemical testing. Pesticides, herbicides and their degradation products migrate from their point of application through the air, water, soil, plants, microorganisms, and animals, including birds and fish. While many of the chemicals used in pesticide and herbicide formulas are harmless, others may have toxic properties or could form toxic by-products, potentially causing risks to human and animal health and/or environmental damage.
There are over 1,000 pesticides and herbicides, many of which are regulated by government agencies. As a result, powerful and rapid analytical methods are needed to detect a wide scope of pesticide and herbicide compounds, at very low concentrations, and their degradation products, in a wide-range of different sample matrices.
Pesticide analysis regulations often require chemical testing using confirmatory techniques such as GC/MS and LC/MS/MS. In recent years, LC/MS/MS has largely replaced traditional GC and LC methods for the following reasons:
- Ability to analyze a wider range of compounds in a single analysis
- Unmatched selectivity and sensitivity of multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)
- Simplified sample extraction procedures
- Streamlined sample preparation procedures
- Enhanced confidence through use of library databases for confirmatory analysis
Simultaneously monitor 1000s of pesticides
