Multi-component determination of atmospheric semi-volatile organic compounds in soils and vegetation from Tarragona County, Catalonia, Spain Noelia Domínguez-Morueco a,b , Mariana Carvalho c , Jordi Sierra b,d , Marta Schuhmacher b , José Luis Domingo a , Nuno Ratola c, ⁎, Martí Nadal a a Laboratory of Toxicology and Environmental Health, School of Medicine, IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Sant Llorenç 21, 43201 Reus, Catalonia, Spain b Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Departament d'Enginyeria Quimica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain c LEPABE-Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal d Laboratory of Soil Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitat de Barcelona, Avda Joan XXIII s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain HIGHLIGHTS • Five classes of SVOCs were analysed in soil and vegetation of Tarragona County. • PAHs had in general the highest concen- trations, followed by SMs. • SVOCs levels showed clear differences between the two matrices. • SVOCs sources are a mix between petrogenic and pyrogenic in the short term. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 4 December 2017 Received in revised form 18 February 2018 Accepted 7 March 2018 Available online xxxx Tarragona County (Spain) is home to the most important chemical/petrochemical industrial complex in Southern Europe, which raises concerns about the presence and effects of the numerous environmental contaminants. In order to assess the levels and patterns of five classes of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) - polycyclic ar- omatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), synthetic musks (SMs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated flame retar- dants (BFRs) and one organochlorine pesticide, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), 27 samples of soil and vegetation (Piptatherum L.) from different areas (petrochemical, chemical, urban/residential, and background) of Tarragona County were analysed. The results show that PAHs levels in soils ranged from 45.12 to 158.00 ng/g and the urban areas presented the highest concentrations, mainly associated with the presence of a nearby highway and several roads with heavy traffic. PAHs levels in vegetation samples ranged from 42.13 to 80.08 ng/g, where the greatest influence came from the urban and petrochemical areas. In the case of SMs, levels in soils and vegetation samples ranged from 5.42 to 10.04 ng/g and from 4.08 to 17.94 ng/g, respectively, and in both cases, background areas (at least 30 km away from the main SVOCs emission sources) showed the highest levels, suggesting an influence of the personal care products derived from beach-related tourism in the coast. PCBs (from 6.62 to 14.07 ng/g in soils; from 0.52 to 4.41 ng/g in vegetation) prevailed in the chemical area in both matrices, probably associated Keywords: Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) Biomonitoring Soil Vegetation Tarragona (Spain) Science of the Total Environment 631–632 (2018) 1138–1152 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: nrneto@fe.up.pt (N. Ratola). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.074 0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv