Sorption Characteristics of Chlordecone and Cadusafos in Tropical Agricultural Soils

International audience; Banana plantations in tropical humid regions require a high input of pesticides. Given the long history of this practice, a number of pesticides that are now banned have accumulated in these soils. Little is known about the sorption of two banned insecticides, chlordecone and cadusafos, which are known to cause adverse environmental and health effects. We studied the sorption-desorption characteristics (Freundlich sorption-desorption coefficient, K-f, and partition coefficient, K-d) of these two molecules in tropical volcanic soils with different soil properties. In particular, we observed the effect of the chemical nature of the soil organic carbon (SOC). The sorption of chlordecone (35.56< K-d < 144.96 L kg(-1)) and the desorption hysteresis (apparent hysteresis index, H