Sorption of pesticides to novel materials: snail pedal mucus acid blackflysilk

The distribution coefficients for 10 pesticides (atrazine, cyanazine, desme tryn, fenitrothion, malathion, parathion, prometryn, propazine, simazine, t erbutryn) to both snail pedal mucus and blackfly larval silk are measured a nd found to be orders of magnitude higher than for soil organic carbon. The lowest values are found for the triazine herbicides (e.g. 19,000 mi g(-1) for simazine on silk) and the highest for the organophosphorus insecticides (e.g. 242,000 ml g(-1) for malathion). The distribution coefficients for p edal mucus are more difficult to quantify in terms of the organic carbon di stribution coefficients but, by mass, are much higher than the correspondin g soil distribution coefficients. The sorption affinities obtained for blac kfly silk are similar in magnitude to literature data for sorption of pesti cides and polyaromatic hydrocarbons to natural organic colloids. (C) 1999 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.