Dithiocarbamates: Properties, Methodological Approaches and Challenges to Their Control

Dithiocarbamates (DTCs) are a group of chemicals used primarily as fungicides, althoughthey are exploited for various other applications. DTCs represent one of the oldest classes of broadspectrumfungicides employed worldwide to control fungal diseases on many crops. Due to their easeof synthesis, low production costs (cheap and readily available starting materials) and a fungicidalactivity with a multi-site mode of action, they are still among modern agriculture's most extensivelyused pesticides. Although the environmental degradation in air, water, and soil is relatively rapiddue to photolysis and/or hydrolysis, they are among the most frequently detected pesticides in theEuropean Union (EU), also with a high frequency of maximum residue level (MRL) exceedances. Thecurrent review aims to comprehensively survey all aspects of DTCs, including the environmental fate,toxicity and analytical methods for determining parental compounds and degradation products inenvironmental and food samples. Furthermore, the accumulation of carbamate and dithiocarbamatepesticides in vegetables, fruits, bioindicator organisms and human biological samples, as well as theirhealth effects on humans, are also considered in this study.