An environmentally friendly method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in different soil typologies

Abstract

Environmental contextPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread organic pollutants that tend to accumulate in soil. We developed an environmentally friendly analytical method for PAHs to evaluate human health risks associated with their presence in soils. The method is feasible for the analysis of soils with widely varying PAH contamination levels, and is well suited to environmental monitoring studies of relevance to human health. AbstractA microwave-assisted extraction, with a dispersive solid-phase purification step followed by programmed temperature vaporisation–gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, is proposed as an environmentally friendly, simple and cheap analytical method for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil. Different extraction and clean-up operating variables were tested to achieve satisfactory analytical performances: trueness from 92 to 114%, limit of quantification (LOQ) from 0.4 to 2µgkg−1 for most PAHs and intermediate precision, calculated as relative standard deviation (RSD), below 10%. The method was validated using both Certified Reference Material and real soil samples collected at sites subjected to different human activities. PAH contents ranged from 0.11 (in holm oak forest soil) to 1mgkg−1 d.w. (in an industrial soil) according to the anthropic gradient. The soil PAH contents measured were used to estimate the risk to human health, which suggested the exposure to the PAHs in soil as a potential risk for human health, especially at the industrial site. The feasibility of the method for soils with different PAH contamination degrees makes it relevant in monitoring programs.