Pathways of pesticide spread in the environment
Pesticide properties affect the risk
Pesticide properties affect the risk of unwanted spread in the environment. For example, properties such as the volatility of substances (vapour pressure), their solubility in water, adsorption capacity (capacity to bind to soil particles, particularly humus and clay) and persistence (the durability of a substance, how easy or difficult it is to break down, the length of time this takes). Substances with both a low adsorption capacity (poor binding to the soil) and a slow rate of breakdown carry the greatest risk of spread.
Page updated:
2010-08-11.