Monitoring of volatile organic pollutants in marine species of Mediterranean Sea

Chemical pollution is of special concern in the Mediterranean region due to its particular ecological and socio-economic characteristics. Contamination of marine organisms from human activities can come from different sources, either from activities that are directly connected to the marine environment or from waste spread to the marine waters via land-based activities. Contaminants such as heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs, dioxins which are known to bio-accumulate in marine organisms, were widely studied and their maximum levels in foodstuffs are set by the European Union Commission (Regulation N° 1881/2006). More volatile compounds such as benzene, toluene, xylene, styrene, short chain chlorinated paraffins (C9-13) important to the production of polymers and numerous consumer products such as solvents, paints, pharmaceutical, etc. are less studied. Phthalate esters are also widely used in various industries as alkylated resins, polymeric polyesters, plasticizers, etc. and they were detected in sea water by various authors. In this context our research reports the results on the determination of volatile organic pollutants in several species of Mediterranean fish, crustaceous and mollusc. A HS-SPME-GC-MS method was developed for the extraction, identification and quantification of the volatiles in the studied marine species. The following pollutants were quantified: chloroform, dichloromethane, benzene and its derivatives such as toluene, ethyl-benzene, trimethyl-benzene, ethyl-toluene, styrene, xylenes and phenol, hydrocarbons, chlorinated and phthalates. Benzene and its derivatives and phthalates were present in all the analyzed species with the highest amount in crustaceous and mollusc, respectively whereas chlorinated paraffins prevailed in fish species.