The available methodology for pesticide residues analysis is very expensive to be used on spraying losses studies and occupational exposure assessment during pesticide application. So, the marking of spray liquids prior to dispersion with easily detectable tracers has become widely accepted practice. The objective of this research was to evaluate a method to assessment the pesticide deposition, characterised by the use of a tracer marked spray liquid and a special sampling technique. The tracer used in this work was the copper, in a fungicide formulation, with low cost and easy atomic absorption spectrophotometric analysis. Cards of blotter-like papers were used as artificial target to catch the droplets. Cards were clipped on cotton strings at constant distances and were disposed on plants possibiliting a height stratified sampling. Cards on Petri dishes are used upon the soil. Between 59 and 76% of the spray were lost according to plant height.
loss assessment method; spray liquid; cupric tracer
