Pesticide in Soil and Rice Crop from North of Iran: Concentration and Risk Assessment

Rice is a major diet and staple food in Iran. The most common organophosphorus pesticide used in rice paddies of this area is diazinon. The objective of this research is to determine the concentration of diazinon in soil and rice grains and specify health risk assessment of diazinon in rice when marketed. 30 mixed samples were collected from paddies. High Performance Liquid Chromatography was used to distinguish diazinon pesticide in soil and rice. The results show that diazinon was detected in 96.66 percent of the total samples. The average level of this diazinon in rice was 0.4±0.43 (mg/kg-1) three months after harvesting. There was a significant correlation between diazinon concentration of rice grains in all samples (P<0.05). Also, the average level of diazinon in soil was 0.132±0.092 (mg/kg-1). There was no significant difference between the average diazinon concentration in the soil of five zones (P>0.05). The result indicates that this amount is higher than the MRLs allowed by the European Union and Iran. Target Hazard Quotient was applied to assess human health risk for adults, women and children. Although estimated THQ for all target population is less than 1 that can be a slight non-carcinogen health risk for human.