title: Dissipation, metabolism and sorption of pesticides used in fruit-packaging plants: Towards an optimized depuration of their pesticide-contaminated agro-industrial effluents.
abstract: Wastewaters from the fruit-packaging industry constitute a serious point source contamination with pesticides. In the absence of effective depuration methods, they are discharged in municipal wastewater treatment plants or spread to land. Modified biobeds could be an applicable solution for their treatment. We studied the dissipation of thiabendazole (TBZ), imazalil (IMZ), ortho-phenylphenol (OPP), diphenylamine (DPA) and ethoxyquin (EQ), used by the fruit-packaging industry, in anaerobically digested sewage sludge, liquid aerobic sewage sludge and in various organic substrates (biobeds packing materials) composed of soil, straw and spend mushroom substrate (SMS) in various volumetric ratios. Pesticide sorption was also determined. TBZ and IMZ showed higher persistence especially in the anaerobically digested sewage sludge (DT50=32.3-257.6d), in contrast to OPP and DPA which were rapidly dissipated especially in liquid aerobic sewage sludge (DT50=1.3-9.3d). EQ was rapidly oxidized mainly to quinone imine (QI) which did not persist and dimethyl ethoxyquinoline (EQNL, minor metabolite) which persisted for longer. Sterilization of liquid aerobic sewage sludge inhibited pesticide decay verifying the microbial nature of pesticide dissipation. Organic substrates rich in SMS showed the highest dissipation capacity with TBZ and IMZ DT50s of ca. 28 d compared to DT50s of >50 d in the other substrates. TBZ and IMZ showed the highest sorption affinity, whereas OPP and DPA were weakly sorbed. Our findings suggest that current disposal practices could not guarantee an efficient depuration of effluents from the fruit-packaging industry, whereas SMS-rich biobed organic substrates show efficient depuration of effluents from the fruit-packaging industry via accelerated dissipation even of recalcitrant fungicides.
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karas
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Aria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Metsoviti
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Vasileios
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zisis
authors.affiliation: Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Natural Resources and Agricultural Engineering, Laboratory of Soils and Agricultural Chemistry, 75 Iera Odos Str., 11855 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Constantinos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ehaliotis
authors.affiliation: Agricultural Research Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Michalis
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Omirou
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, Laboratory of Pesticide Science, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece.
authors.forename: Evangelia S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Papadopoulou
authors.affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, Laboratory of Pesticide Science, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece.
authors.forename: Urania
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Menkissoglou-Spiroudi
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Manta
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Dimitri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Komiotis
authors.affiliation: University of Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ploutonos 26 and Aiolou, 41221 Larissa, Greece. Electronic address: dkarpouzas@bio.uth.gr.
authors.forename: Dimitrios G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Karpouzas
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018857:Food Packaging; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biobeds; Fruit-packaging industry; Pesticide dissipation; Pesticide sorption; Sewage sludge; Spent mushroom substrate