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Profiles and risk assessment of legacy and current use pesticides in urban rivers in Beijing, China

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Abstract

Pesticides in the environment can pose serious risks to aquatic ecosystems. This study focused on the existence of 27 pesticides, including 13 pesticides regulated by the Stockholm Convention as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and 14 commonly used pesticides in three urban rivers in Beijing that receive effluents from three municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWTPs). Among the 27 pesticides, 12 were detected at least once over a period of 4 seasons. Atrazine, aldrin and dieldrin were universally found in the three rivers, with the highest concentrations being 311, 163 and 23.3 ng/L, respectively. HCHs, DDTs, heptachlor and endosulfan, which are POPs, were detected at lower concentrations (ND–16.7 ng/L). Most of the insecticides and some of the herbicides in the rivers originated from MWTP effluents. The risk assessment results showed that aldrin posed medium risk (0.1 ≤ RQ < 1) to fish, and atrazine exhibited medium risk to both fish and algae. Despite the implementation of the Stockholm Convention and the upgrades of MWTPs emitting ozone, high loads of aldrin, atrazine and dieldrin were discharged to the rivers. Efforts should be devoted to identifying POP pesticide sources and upgrading MWTPs with other technologies to ensure the ecological safety of rivers.

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Availability of data and materials

All data analysed during the current study are available in the supplementary material.

Funding

This work was supported by the project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. QYZDY-SSW-DQC004) and Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (No. 2017ZX07502003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Universty of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yangping Zhang

  2. Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yangping Zhang & Min Yang

  3. Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Haifeng Zhang & Min Yang

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  1. Yangping Zhang
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Yangping Zhang analysed and processed all sample data and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. Min Yang and Haifeng Zhang reviewed and edited the original draft. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Zhang, Y., Zhang, H. & Yang, M. Profiles and risk assessment of legacy and current use pesticides in urban rivers in Beijing, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 39423–39431 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13140-0

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