Biological and Artificial Matrixes as PAH Accumulators: An Experimental Comparative Study Nicola Skert & Jari Falomo & Luigi Giorgini & Alessandro Acquavita & Lorenzo Capriglia & Roberto Grahonja & Nordio Miani Received: 17 December 2008 / Accepted: 27 April 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract In order to find out a new effective accumulator of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) useful for monitoring studies on a large scale and low costs, the accumulation capacity of both biological and artificial matrixes (mosses and polyes- ter fibers, respectively) has been tested. For this purposes, Hypnum cupressiforme and dacron® were exposed to pollution airborne in two sites located nearby an active iron industry and in center of the town of Trieste, where high PAH pollution spots, due to vehicular traffic, are usually detected. The samplers were exposed in six sampling sessions for 21 days. The results obtained were compared with data collected by active PAH samplers, usually employed for official widespread monitoring. The level of correlation between the data sets was calculated. Furthermore, a repeatability study of data was performed. According to the results, both matrixes are good PAH accumulators, though they show different skills. Keywords PAHs . Atmospheric pollution . Biomonitoring . Mosses . Dacron® 1 Introduction Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent an important group of ubiquitous environmental contaminants, in which structure consists of two or more fused aromatic rings. They are widespread throughout the environment (Blumer 1976; Suess 1976) and are derived from both natural and anthropic sources. Volcanic eruptions and forest fires are the most important natural origins, whereas anthropic sources include industrial activities, waste incinera- tion, vehicular emissions, domestic heating systems, and, generally, all the processes involving the incom- plete combustion of organic matter (Lim et al. 1999; Marr et al. 1999). PAH environmental concern depends on their carcinogenic and mutagenic proper- Water Air Soil Pollut DOI 10.1007/s11270-009-0089-6 N. Skert (*) : J. Falomo : L. Giorgini : R. Grahonja : N. Miani Dipartimento Provinciale di Trieste, ARPA FVG (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente), Via La Marmora 13, 34127 Trieste, Italy e-mail: nicola.skert@arpa.fvg.it A. Acquavita Osservatorio Alto Adriatico, ARPA FVG (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente), Via Cairoli 14, 33057 Palmanova, Italy L. Capriglia Sezione Operativa Laboratorio Chimico, Ufficio delle Dogane di Trieste, Largo Panfili 1, 34132 Trieste, Italy