Decontamination of pesticide packing using ionizing radiation

Abstract The Brazilian agriculture activities have consumed about 288,000 tons of pesticides per year conditioned in about 107,000,000 packing with weight of approximately 23,000 tons. The discharge of empty plastic packing of pesticides can be an environmental concern causing problems to human health, animals, and plants if done without inspection and monitoring. The objective of this work is to study the ionizing radiation effect in the main pesticides used in Brazil for plastic packing decontamination. Among the commercial pesticides, chlorpyrifos has significant importance because of its wide distribution and extensive use and persistence. The radiation-induced degradation of chlorpyrifos in liquid samples and in polyethylene pack was studied by gamma radiolysis. Packing of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) three layer coextruded, named COEX, contaminated with chlorpyrifos, were irradiated using both a multipurpose Co-60 gamma irradiator and a gamma source with 5000 Ci total activity Gamma cell type. The chemical analysis of the chlorpyrifos was made using a gas chromatography associated to the Mass Spectrometry—GCMS from Shimadzu Model QP 5000. Gamma radiation was efficient for removing chlorpyrifos from the plastic packing, in all studied cases.