Glyphosate and other plant protection products in size-segregated urban aerosol: Occurrence and dimensional trend

Plant protection products (PPPs) play a fundamental role in the maintenance of agricultural fields and private/public green areas, however they can contaminate zones nearby the application point due to wind drift, resuspension, and evaporation. Several studied have deepened the relationship between PPPs and living beings’ health, suggesting that these products might have a negative influence. Some PPPs belong to the class of Emergent Contaminants, which are compounds whose knowledge on the environmental distribution and influence is limited. These issues are even more stressed in urban aerosol, due to the high residential density that characterizes this area. Therefore, this study assessed the contamination caused by polar PPPs, such as herbicides (i.e., Glyphosate), fungicides (i.e., Fosetyl Aluminium), and growth regulators (i.e. Maleic Hydrazide), in size-segregated urban aerosol and evaluated their concentration variability with respect to atmospheric parameters (humidity, temperature, rain). Moreover, hypotheses on possible sources were formulated, exploiting also back-trajectories of air masses. A total of six PPPs were found in the samples: glyphosate was more present in the coarse fraction (2.5–10 μm), Fosetyl Aluminium, chlorate and perchlorate were more present in the coarse/fine fractions (10-1 μm), while cyanuric acid and phosphonic acid were mostly concentrated in the fine/ultrafine fractions (<1 μm). While for the first four we suspect of local sources, such as private gardening, the two latter might derive from the entire Po Valley, a highly polluted area in the North of Italy, and from degradation of other substances.