Toxicology and fate of Pestanal and commercial propetamphos formulations in river and estuarine sediment.

To quantify the impact of organophosphate pesticides on aquatic ecosystems requires a mechanistic understanding of their behaviour in a range of environmental matrices. The objective of this study was to compare the sorption/desorption, biodegradation and toxic effects of the Pestanal grade and commercial formulation (Ectomort Centenary) of the organophosphate insecticide propetamphos in river and estuarine sediments. For both formulations, the sorption of propetamphos onto sediment was initially very rapid followed by a slower sorption phase.