Monitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in several fish species collected from some lakes in Hanoi area

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) has been known as the compound with toxicity effects related to skin, lung, bladder, liver and stomach cancers; this has been proven in laboratory animals. In this study, 24 PAHs in 25 fish samples collected from West lake and Yen So lake, Hanoi city was extracted by ultrasound with the hexane and diclomethane mix solvent, cleaned up through silicagel collumn, and detected using twodimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF/MS). PAHs was detected in all fish samples collected from West lake and Yen So lake. The mean recovery performance of 24 PAHs was 95.6% (from 67.29% to 126%), and the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) in samples were 0.6 ng/g and 2.06 ng/g, respectively. The average concentration of PAHs in fish samples collected from Yen So lake and West lake was 168.04 ng/g (ranging from 82.26 to 268.74 ng/g) and 116.73 ng/g (ranging from 6.93 to 346.5 ng/g) dry weight, respectively. The results of this study showed that the accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fish was inhomogeneous in distribution between these study areas.