Potential Emissions of Insecticide VOCs and Their Correlations between Agricultural Emissions and Meteorological Factors

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that might lead to serious environmental problems, yet few studies relate to the insecticide application during agricultural process. As there appears to be a notable lack of research on the VOCs pollution of insecticides, we aimed to assess the occurrence of insecticide VOCs in the laboratory and during the agricultural process in China that have not been previously investigated. We discuss the estimation of VOCs emission potentials (EPs) and actual emissions (AEs) posed by insecticide applications. For this purpose, nine insecticide formulations were collected for testing and were analyzed via a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and a pump-suction photoionization detection (PID) gas detector. The results showed that the EPs of nine insecticide samples ranged from 12.30% to 81.30%, with a median of 41.59% and a mean of 45.41%. The average actual emission ratio (AER) for the different formulations ranged from 48.76% to 72.12%. AER value was significantly positively correlated with temperature, but significantly negatively correlated with relative humidity and atmospheric pressure. The results of this study provide a technical reference for establishing the corresponding emission inventory and determining the total amount of pesticide VOCs.