Safety assessment of the source water within the Pearl River Delta on the aspect of organochlorine pesticides contamination.

The safety of source water is a noticeable problem in the Pearl River Delta, one of the densely populated areas in China. In this study, 20 individual organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were investigated in 15 water sources within this area using gas chromatography-electron capture detector, and the hazard risks to human health were assessed in terms of individual OCPs based on daily water consumption according to the standard recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Results showed that the total OCP concentrations ranged from 2.42 ng l(-1) to 39.52 ng l(-1) during the years 2008 and 2009. The hazard ratios based on both non-cancer and cancer benchmarks were less than 1 for all the water samples, which indicated that individual OCPs posed no risk to human health. However, the risks caused by the combined toxicity of total OCPs in this area should not be ignored.