Assessment of exposure to simazine through drinking waters in Brazil

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate the exposure to simazine via water intake in Brazil. The fate, occurrence, and removal of simazine in waters were studied. A risk assessment was carried out by estimating the margin of exposure to simazine through water consumption, considering the occurrence of this compound and the health-based guideline value established for simazine in Brazilian drinking waters. In addition, the possibility of simazine by-product formation during water treatment processes was also discussed. Approximately 500 tonnes of simazine were sold annually in Brazil from 2009 to 2020. In parallel, simazine detection rates in water supply systems from 2014 to 2018 were above 80%. The assessment of the margin of exposure indicates that simazine concentrations in 1% of the studied municipalities may represent a high risk to human health, whereas 46.8% are in an alert situation. The conventional water treatment process is inefficient for simazine removal, which evidences a need for advanced treatments. Moreover, when simazine is present in water, some disinfection processes may lead to endocrine-disrupting compounds formation.

Keywords

• Pesticide
• Triazines
• Risk assessment
• Water pollution