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In the present study, a soil monitoring program was undertaken in Greek cotton cultivated areas in 2012. Twenty-seven soil samples were collected from the entire Thessaly plain in early summer of 2012, corresponding to approximately three months (current use of pendimethalin), up to one year (for the banned ethalfluralin), and three years (for the also banned trifluralin), after the last dinitroaniline application. Low but not negligible levels of dinitroanilines were detected, ranging from 0.01 to 0.21 μg g−1d.w. for trifluralin and 0.01–0.048 μg g−1d.w. for pendimethalin, respectively. Trifluralin was the herbicide most frequently detected (44.4%). The high historic application of trifluralin and its high persistence and accumulation potential is in line with the abundance of the detected residues. The present data indicate that soil samples contain extractable residues of banned trifluralin, but based on the comparison of the theoretical PECplateau for trifluralin (0.277 µg g−1) and the maximum Measured Environmental Concentration, it was concluded that the detected residues should be attributed to previous years’ application. The latter suggested the need for continual monitoring of the dinitroaniline family of pesticides, including the banned substances, aiming thus to an improved environmental profile for agricultural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The persistence of trifluralin, a herbicide exhibiting persistent organic pollutant properties, was investigated in a clay loam (CL) type soil under conventional tillage of oilseed rape and in bare soil. Trifluralin residues were determined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detection (DAD) after extraction with acetonitrile using sonication. Trifluralin dissipation was followed for a time period of 150 days and it was characterised by a relative fast initial loss followed by slow dissipation. More rapid loss within the plots of conventional cultivation in comparison to bare soil was observed. The half-life of trifluralin calculated from first-order kinetics dissipation ranged from 53.3 to 56.8 days in the plots with oilseed rape while in bare soil it ranged from 67.9 to 71.4 days. One month after application a considerable loss of about 30% was observed in all fields. Two months later a loss of 40% was observed in bare soil and 60% in the plots cultivated with oilseed rape, indicating the role of crop in the dissipation of trifluralin. Sixteen to 23 per cent of the initial applied trifluralin still remained in soil 150 days after application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple, new gas-chromatography method was developed and validated by a single-laboratory for quantitative determination of four active ingredients (alachlor, chlorpyriphos-methyl, fenthion, and trifluralin) in their commercially available emulsifiable concentrate formulations, widely used in Greece. This method enables the analysis of a number of pesticides with the same chromatographic conditions and internal standard. A capillary gas-chromatographic system equipped with a flame ionization detector and a split injector was used. The linearity of response, specificity, repeatability and other performance characteristics of the method are presented. As a result, the method is validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]