Assessment of PAH pollution in the southern Baltic Sea through the analysis of sediment, mussels and fish bile

The concentrations of fifteen PAH compounds in samples of sediment and blue mussel tissue (Mytilus trossulus) were measured. In addition, the biliary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites present in flounder (Platichthys flesus) were analysed. Two methods were used in the analysis of PAH metabolites; high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fixed wavelength fluorescence (FF). The major PAH metabolite which could be measured using the HPLC method was 1-OH pyrene. It was possible to detect 1-OH Phe and 3-OH B[a]P in 70 and 24 samples respectively, of the 87 samples analysed. However, the concentrations of 1-OH Phe and 3-OH B[a]P were below or near to the LOQ (0.002 μg ml−1 bile). The bile of flounder samples from the Gulf of Gdansk had 1-OH Pyr concentrations which ranged from 0.019 to 0.066 μg ml−1 bile. The high linear correlation observed between the quantity of 1-OH pyrene determined by the HPLC-F method and the content of the sum of pyrene-type PAHs obtained by the FF method indicated the FF method of determination of pyrene-type PAH metabolites can be used as a screening method. The content of ∑15PAHs in sediments collected in the Gulf of Gdansk, in 2008, ranged from 29.3 to 103 μg kg−1 dw. In mussel tissue ∑15PAHs concentrations were between 173.2 μg kg−1 dw and 237.7 μg kg−1 dw. All concentrations measured in the current study, in mussel tissue, were below the OSPAR toxicity threshold values.