Gas/particle partitioning of currently used pesticides in the atmosphere of Strasbourg (France).

Atmospheric particle (P) and gas (G) phase samples have been collected in Strasbourg (Northeast of France) using a high-volume sampler equipped with a filter-XAD-2 resin plug between April 17 and May 29, 2007. Seventy-one currently used pesticides were monitored in these samples, and 38 of them were detected at concentrations ranging from 0.07 ng/m 3 for fenarimol to 40.30 ng/m 3 for deltamethrin in the particle phase and from 0.03 ng/m 3 for fenarimol to 89.54 ng/m 3 for dimethachlor in the gas phase. These results were used to study the G/P partitioning of the pesticides using Junge-Pankow-based models, and to evaluate the influence of environmental parameters (temperature and humidity) on this partitioning. The average slope of log K P against log $$ P_{\rm{L}}^0 $$ was −2.11, suggesting that partitioning is influenced by adsorption. The partitioning equations also showed that the atmospheric concentrations of the monitored pesticides were dominated by volatilisations from local sources. Concerning environmental parameters, temperature was found to strongly influence the G/P partitioning of the studied pesticides while humidity has only very little influence on it.