POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS (PAH) - PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS IN SAMPLING, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants and derive mainly from anthropogenic sources. The complexity of the mixture of PAH found in the environment is largely source-dependent, with combustion sources yielding primarily parent (non-alkylated) PAH and a more complicated mixture of parent and alkylated PAH resulting from oil inputs. Sediments and shellfish tissues are the matrices most commonly analysed; the determination of individual PAH may be conducted using either GC or HPLC techniques. Intercomparison exercises held, to date, have shown poor comparability in such determinations, both between and within methods and a further exercise is proposed with the aim of improving current methodology.