An attempt was made to determine the residual distribution of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides in the various kinds of Korean tea which were purchased from the market. The organochlorine pesticides investigated in this study were BHC, DDT and dicofol and the organophosphorus pesticides were diazinon, EPN, fenitrothion and parathion. The pesticide residues were determined by GC-ECD and NPD. Only BHC was detected in all the samples and it's level were ranged from 0.00064 ppm to 0.05995 ppm and it's average was 0.00682 ppm and DDT, dicofol and organophosphorus pesticides were not detected in all samples. The organophophorus pesticides were detected(0.0035-0.0983 ppm) in raw materials but were not in the manufactured material and it is considered that the largely components of the pesticides is removed by drying and high temperature while the tea was manufactured. The recovery tests of the pesticides gave satisfactory results showing an average yield of 97.6% with organochlorine pesticides and 92.5% with organophosphorus pesticides and the detection limits level were 0.00008 ppm to 0.0010 ppm.
Sea water samples collected in August, 1994 from 20 stations in the Kwangyang Bay were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring (GC/MS-SIM) to investigate persistence and distribution pattern of four organophosphorus pesticides (DDVP, Diazinon, IBP, EDDP). Except for IBP, the contamination by DDVP, Diazinon, and EDDP in marine aquatic environment in Korea has not been reported previously. In this study, however, all these four pesticides were detected in all stations (except DDVP) and their concentrations were in ng/L level. The concentrations ranged from detection limit to 15.3ng/L for DDVP, 1.8-27.7ng/L for Diazinon, 7.3-63.5ng/L for IBP, and 22.2-1100.1ng/L for EDDP. It is noteworthy that the measured concentrations of IBP and EDDP in this study would be much lower than usual, since the use of IBP and EDDP was less than 50% of average annual consumption due to unusually dry and hot weather condition in the summer of 1994. It was very surprising to find that the highest concentrations of organophosphorus pesticides were observed at stations near Daesa Streamlet instead of Seomjin River, which has more point source of the pesticides. This result suggests that the small river discharge during heavy rain period in summer can give harmful effect on marine biota (both wild and aqua-cultured) with its organophosphorus pesticide residue, despite of their short residence time in aquatic environment. In order to protect the marine life properly from acute toxicity of the organophosphorus pesticides, it needs to be emphasized that monitoring the level of agricultural pesticides in river run-off should be done during active consumption period rather at regular intervals.