ABSTRACT
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of compounds that consist of fused aromatic rings and are one of the most widespread environmental pollutants. PAH-bearing materials usually contain a number of different individual PAHs, many of which are known or suspected to pose an environmental health threat, inclusive of being carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. Measurement of PAHs is a prerequisite to risk assessment, and the common approach is chemical analysis. Chemical analysis has the fundamental shortcoming of not addressing bioavailability, which is important since that which is not bioavailable, is not toxic. Due to their environmental prevalence and chemical behavior, wherein there is a large variation of PAH affi nity for various natural materials, bioavailability is arguably even more important to understand for PAHs than for other classes of environmental pollutants.
