FUNGICIDE CONTAMINATION OF MEDITERRANEAN ESTUARINE WATERS - RESULTS FROM A MED POL PILOT SURVEY

Fungicides are used extensively in agriculture, Negligible information is, however, available concerning the potential for these compounds t o reach and impact estuarine and marine systems, To investigate possib le contamination of the Mediterranean Sea from this class of agrochemi cals, a pilot survey was undertaken during 1994, Riverine, estuarine a nd marine water samples were taken from the Ebro Delta, Spain, the Rho ne Delta in the south of France, the River Po in Italy/Northern Adriat ic sea and the Amvrakikos and Thermaikos Gulfs in Greece, They were an alysed for selected fungicides which are used extensively in the count ries involved, Compounds screened for included: captafol; captan; carb endazim; chlorothalonil; dicloran; ethirimol; folpet; fenpropimorph; m etalaxyl; and vinclozolin, Results from the survey indicate that most of these fungicides are insufficiently persistent to impact estuarine and marine environments, Some, however, were detected during this surv ey: dicloran (Rhone Delta); carbendazim (Ebro Delta); captafol (River Po and N. Adriatic); captan (Greek rivers and lagoons); folpet (River Po, N. Adriatic and Loudias River, Greece); and vinclozolin (River Po) , Contamination in these instances was generally restricted to drainag e canals and riverine samples and was associated with known agricultur al applications. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.