ENANTIOSELECTIVE ANALYSES OF PERSISTENT AND MODERN PESTICIDES - A STEP TOWARD SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

In the conflicting goals of sufficient food for a growing world popula tion and conservation of natural ressources. the safe use of environme ntally friendly pesticides plays an important role. A general concept of sustainable agriculture and how modern, efficient pesticides comply with the basic ideas of a sustainable farming are given and discussed . Modern pesticides often are mixtures of stereoisomers with largely d ifferent biological properties on the target and non-target organisms. More and more of these pesticides are used in enantiopure forms, lead ing to clearly reduced risks for the environment. The assessment of th e fate, environmental concentrations and risks related to the use of a specific compound relies mainly on modern environmental analytical te chniques, such as enantioselective high-resolution gas chromatography with various mass spectrometric detection techniques. Several of these techniques are described and selected results presented.