Origin and Distribution of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Surface Water of Suez Gulf

M.M. Emara, N.A. Farid*, E.A. El-Sabagh**, O.E. Ahmed*# and E.M. Kamal**Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science (Boys) Al-Azhar University, *Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute and **Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science (Girls) Al-Azhar University, Nasr city, Cairo, Egypt.

THE SUEZ Canal is the passage to the international trade between ……east and west, thus several waste pollutants are easily disposed and dumped into the boundaries of the studied area. The pollutants vary from raw sewage, oil spills, and industrial effluents to garbage which has tremendous impacts on the marine environment. Most of these sources in the investigated area mainly occurred from the human activities, e.g. Industrial wastes, domestic draining of the Suez City and ship's oil. Distribution and origin of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of (PAHs) in the collected water samples revealed the origin of (PAHs) is petrogenic and pyrogenic or mixture of (petrogenic and pyrogenic). Levels of PAHs varied between (1.640,39.139) μg/L and (0.7317, 21.9373) μg/L for summer and winter,respectively. These results indicate high level of contamination. It is recommended that more effort and rules should be carried out in order to govern, prevent or even minimize the sources of pollutants.