Organochlorine pesticide residues in Styrian soils and seeds of the Styrian oil pumpkin: An inventory and a concept for their reduction

The fungicide hexachlorobenzene and other organochlorine pesticides have be en detected in agricultural soils of the Austrian federal state Styria and in the seeds of the Styrian oil pumpkin grown on these fields. For monitori ng the exact amounts of these contaminants in the single ecological compart ments effective extraction and sample pre-treatment techniques have been de veloped, thus leading to a significant correlation between the concentratio n of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in soil and its content in the oil seeds grown there, the factor ranging between 5 and 25. The efficiency of a new concep t for the reduction of the pesticide contamination of the pumpkin seeds inv olving the application of activated charcoal powder could be demonstrated i n a field-study. Thus the bioavailability of HCB in soil could be reduced s ignificantly leading to lower HCB-contaminated oil seeds.