THESIS APPROVAL

several PAHs in water and sediment, respectively, from many aquatic areas. PAHs
burden remains relatively near the point sources of PAH and concentrations decrease
with distance from the source (Neff, 1985). Sediments receiving drainage from
industrial areas may have total PAHs concentrations of 100 mg/kg or more (Bjorseth
et al., 1979), while those in areas remote from human activity usually has PAHs
concentrations in the low ppb range (Shaw et al., 1979). Rivers flowing through
heavily industrialized areas may contain 1-5 µg/l total PAHs. Unpolluted rivers,
ground water, drinking water, seawater usually contain less than 0.1 µg/l total PAHs
(Neff, 1979). From these documented data, it may be suggested that relative
concentrations of PAH in aquatic ecosystems are generally high in the sediments and
low in the water column.
Table 3 Concentration of PAHs in water from many aquatic areas around the world.
Aquatic area /
PAHs Concentration Reference
Country
(ng/l)
River / Norway Acenaphthene 14 – 1,232 Berglind (1982)
Benzo(a)pyrene 19 – 311
Benzo(b)fluorene 17
Fuoranthene 285 – 3,269
Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene 17 – 299
Naphthalene 50 – 2,090
Pyrene 485 – 3,099
Emscher River /
Germany
Anthracene 270 ROWWD (1986)
Elbe River / Anthanthrene 0.2 - 0.5 Grimmer et al. (1981)
Germany Chrysene 11 – 15
Rhine River / Benzo(e)phenanthrene 1.5 - 9.1 Grimmer et al. (1981)
Germany Benzo(ghi)fluoranthene 1.0 – 11
Ruhr River /
Germany
Benzo(k)fluoranthene 20 ROWWD (1986)
Seawater / Acenaphthylene 0.02 - 1.7 GFOSNH (1993)
Germany Benzo(e)pyrene 0.02 - 8.8
Coronene 0.01 - 1.4
Perylene 0.01 - 5.7
Lake Superior / Benzo(a)anthracene
0.16 Baker and Eisenreich
United States Benzo(b)fluoranthene 0.07 (1990)
Benzo(ghi)perylene < 0.05
Dibenzo(ah)pyrene < 0.03
Fluorene 0.6
Phenanthrene 3.5
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