PARENT SESSION

PT05 Atmospheric Transport and Fate
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday

(PT073) A comparison of active (high-volume) versus passive (polyurethane foam) atmospheric samplers for current-use pesticides.

Waite, D.¹, Sproull, J.², Harner, T.³, Tuduri, L.³, Quiring, D.¹, ¹ Environment Canada, Regina, SK, Canada² Environment Canada, Edmonton, AB, Canada³ Environment Canada, Downsview, ON, Canada

ABSTRACT- Two pairs of passive atmospheric samplers were co-located with PS-1 high-volume samplers at a two elevations on a 30 m high tower, at a site in southern Saskatchewan. Weekly samples were collected from the high-volume samplers and compared with 28-day samples collected from the passive samplers. The samples were analysed for 10 currently-used herbicides with varying chemical properties plus lindane (-HCH). Qualitatively the passive samplers produced similar results to the high-volume samplers. The weekly sampling data from the high-volume samplers were combined to provide estimates of the average atmospheric concentrations of the various compounds per 28-day period. These were compared with the quantities collected by the passive samplers to calculate the sampling rates of the passive samplers for each pesticide. The calculated sampling rates varied considerably from chemical to chemical and also for any given chemical. Reasons for this apparent variability in sampling rates will be explored and these data compared with passive sampler data reported in the literature.

Key words: pesticides, passive samplers, atmospheric