AGR-159 Pesticide residues

The research lines of this group include, on the one hand, the development of new methods of analysis of pesticides in food and the behavior of residues during food production. Also, the development of new methods of analysis of emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment plant outflows, sludge and marine sediments.

On the other hand, the application of toxicity bioassays in natural and waste waters, as well as water decontamination treatments. The group has the most modern mass spectrometry systems coupled to gas chromatography and liquid chromatography, as well as automated systems for the treatment of solid and liquid samples and the extraction of volatile analytes (purge and trap).

Such systems are applied to the development and validation of analytical methods with different objectives: analysis of pesticides in food, detection and evaluation of contamination processes in water and sediments, control of environmental quality parameters in the marine environment, quality control of phytosanitary product formulations, quality control in the pharmaceutical industry, determination of the acute toxicity of substances of synthetic origin, evaluation of the toxicity of natural waters and industrial effluents, and characterization of photochemical degradation products originating in natural processes or in water decontamination treatments.