Six porous copolymers of acrylonitrile (AN)/divinylbenzene (DVB) and methacrylonitrile (MAN)/DVB have been synthesized by the suspension polymerization in the presence of inert diluents. The resulting adsorbents are found to have slightly different specific surface areas (460-720 m(2)/g for AN/DVB and 560-730 m(2)/g for MAN/DVB) and contain various amounts of strongly polar nitrile groups. The influence of surface polarity has been studied for the sorption of selected pesticides and herbicides from water. In addition, a series of styrene-divinylbezene resins, namely Hypersol-Macronet(TM) MN-100 (weakly basic), MN-400 (strongly basic), and MN-200 (unfunctionalized) have been tested for the removal of selected pesticides and herbicides. The sorption of atrazine on all studied sorbents is significantly higher than sorption of imazapyr or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Atrazine sorption on AN/DVB and MAN/DVB resins is in the range of 30-66 mg/g (0.055-0.092 mg/m(2)) at an equilibrium concentration of 1 mg/L in solution.