Application of gas chromatography on glass capillary columns to the analysis of hydrocarbon pollutants from the Amoco Cadiz oil spill

Abstract About 230,000 tons oil spilled when the Amoco Cadiz sank in 1978 and heavily polluted the northern Brittany coasts. During a 9-month period, the composition of oil on beaches near the wreck site was studied by high-performance gas chromatography (HPGC). Simultaneously, levels of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons in flat and Japanese oysters were measured. Quantification was effected by means of perdeuterated hydrocarbons which were totally resolved from the natural compounds by HPGC. Much attention has been paid to the input and fate of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in oysters. They were characterized as three-ring aromatics by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and separation by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography on LiChrosorb-NH 2- Di- and trimethyldibenzothiophenes appeared to be the major persistent hydrocarbons in the environment.