OCCURRENCE OF PAHS IN VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF ENVIRONMENT IN ZABRZE (UPPER SILESIA, POLAND)

The Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution state of the cho sen town (Zabrze) of Upper Silesia, the most industrialised region in Poland, was presented. Zabrze is a town of medium size, having populat ion twenty times bigger than a medium town population in Poland. In th is study we determined the qualitative and quantitative composition of PAHs fraction separated from the following elements of environment: s uspended dust, drinking water, soil and sewage sludge. The following a nalytical techniques were used: Soxhlet Extraction, Solid Phase Extrac tion, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Capillary Gas Chromatograp hy and High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The results confirmed t he significant state of examined region pollution. They stated the exc eed of contents B(a)P in suspended dust. The soils in that place were heavily polluted with PAHs, about 4000 mu g . kg(-1) for the sum of PA Hs. The total contents of PAHs in sewage sludge of Zabrze did not exce ed the analogous contents published for West European sewage sludge tr eatment plants and the level of determined PAHs in drinking water did not show any claims.