The Malaria National Service built a factory of organoclorine pesticides used in public health campaigns (HCH and DDT) between 1950 and 1965, at Cidade dos Meninos, in the municipal district of Duque de Caxias/RJ to control the dissemination of endemic rural diseases. After a media outcry, in 1989, FEEMA investigated and found out that after the factory closure piles of residues were left behind causing the contamination of the soils. Analyses of foliar tissues and soil were conducted in two stands of Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus grandis e Corymbia citriodora (Hook.) K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Jhonson), with the objective of evaluating the potential of the species as phytoremediator of contaminated soils by organochlorines pesticides. A composite soil sample and five samples of leaves were collected in each one of the studied places. Three leaf samples from C. citriodora and two from E. grandis were analized for pesticides organochlorines by gas chromatography. Both species grew on the same conditions, with average heights of 9,1 e 16,8 m and average diameters of 7,8 and 15,95 cm for E. grandis and C. citriodora, respectively. The average height and diameter of C. citriodora were similar to those found for other stands in the Atlantic forest region while the E. grandis was a little bellow those averages. The presence of organochlorine pesticides was detected in the leaves at low concentrations but the concentrations in the soils were high, being greater in the E. grandis plantation. These results were compared to previous analyses and suggested that the species can function as phytoremediators especially the C. citriodora.
Pesticides; phytoremediation; eucalypt; Brazil
