In Chile, CP is extensively used in the fruit farming industry, especially in blueberry crops.
In recent years, this crop has been characterized by high productivity due to planted areas that have increased from 1910 ha in 2001 to 10,763 ha in 2008 today this crop would reach 12,500 ha.
This has meant an increase in the use of CP, most likely increasing the risk of environmental contamination and health hazards to consumers by CP residues that have accumulated on agricultural crops.
The contamination of soil by CP can be caused from handling the pesticide in the farmyard and from the rinsing of containers.
Moreover, accidental releases can result in the contamination of surface and groundwater.
The insecticide CP is characterized as moderately persistent with a half-life in soil of 10–120 days, and it has very low solubility in water (2 mg L−1).
In soil, the degradation of CP can involve a combination of photolysis, chemical hydrolysis and microbial degradation.