Survey of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in marine products in Korea using GC/MS

This study investigates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in marine products on the Korean market. A total of 280 samples of fish (n = 100), shellfish (n = 80), cephalopod (n = 60) and crustacea (n = 40) were collected for analyses of PAHs (naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene and benzo[g,h,i]perylene). The analytical procedure was based on the matrix solid-phase dispersion on Florisil cartridges and extraction with hexane/dichloromethane (3:1, v/v). The PAHs were determined by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection using selective ion monitoring. Average recoveries for all the PAHs studied were in the range 58-79%. The sum of 16 PAHs concentrations in fish, shellfish, cephalopod/crustacea were in the range 0.2-0.5, 1.2-1.6 and 0.8-1.9 µg/kg, respectively.