Abstract

Pesticides: Detection and Removal

Author(s): Kok Hong Tan, Chin Wei Tan, Abdul Rahman Mohamed, Sharif Hussein Sharif Zein and Soon Huat Tan

In the process of agricultural development, pesticides have played a significant role to boost food production by protecting the crops and other agricultural products against pests and plant diseases. Nevertheless, their overwhelming utilization has posed a threat to the ecosystem health and the associated environmental pollution issues have become major global concerns. Furthermore, human exposure to pesticides occupationally and environmentally causes a myriad adverse health effects through pesticides toxicity. In order to preserve the environmental quality and safeguard human from pesticides hazards, intensive research efforts are being invested into the development of technology for pesticides detection and removal. Electro chemical bio sensors incorporating enzymatic detection have demonstrated their potential application to detect pesticides with the advantages of size miniature, portability, rapid response, high sensitivity and selectivity.As for pesticides removal, physical treatment has achieved the highest pesticides rejection, followed with chemical and biological treatment. This paper reviews the global research activities to develop technology and techniques for pesticides detection using carbon nano tubes and removal.