[Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environment] | Analýza polycyklických aromatických uhľovodíkov v životnom prostredí

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one the substantial group entering the environment. Pollution based on oil materials, industry contamination and transport or buming of organic substances had caused their spreading in all the components of the environment. The accumulation of PAHs in sediments and soil presents a high level of risk for human food chain contamination by these highly toxic substances. Many of PAHs belong to the category of substances with carcinogenic features, others are rather likely to be carcinogenic. The monography presents the problems of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment, deals with the basic information of the chemical and toxicological characteristic s of PAHs. The publication brings the summary about the PAHs occurence in the environmental compouds, informs about the influence of polyaromates on the environment and on the living organism. The second part deals with the description of analytical methods of PAHs in the environment. There are described the methods of sample-taking of different environmental matrices, sample processing and several modern analytical methods. In the thirth part is the experimental study of analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in environmental compounds. During the research we took samples of the water, river sediments, soil and plants from region nearby rivers Zolná and Slatina near the woodworking plant. In the samples we determined polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (the 16 compounds by List of the priority pollutants by EPA). We compared the different methods of extraction of PAHs from water samples (SPE and LLE). The results show that liquid - liquid extraction is better for real samples from environment. For the analysis of plants is sample processing and extraction of PAHs very important. We comparated two methods of extraction - Soxhlet extraction and extraction contemporaneous with homogenization of plant material in one step. For PAHs analysis is better to use homogenization and extraction together. PAR amount is the highest in the samples took from the sampling area immediately the workroom of impregnation. It confirms the higher producer of the land pollutions by PAR is the woodworking plant. The amount of PAH decreases with the increasing distance from the pollution source. The highest amount was determined in the samples of sediments. The sediments are matrix for the long-term PAH deposition and PAH can be again released into the water at the some conditions. So it is necessary to monitor the occurrence of the highly toxic compounds in the environment and also to include them to the legislative rules in the sufficient range. The knowledge and determination of risks is the first step to the PAH elimination or the arose damages correction. These facts show the importance of environmental chemistry and environmental anylysis.