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At present, toxic substances are the permanent constituent of the natural environment. Their common occurrence in air, water, and soil is undoubtedly connected with the development of various industrial activities, in particular chemical, heavy and motor industry as well as with the broaden use of pesticides, chemical fertilisers and other xenobionts. It can be assessed that in human surroundings there are about one million trace organic substances, i.e., at a concentration not exceeding 100 ppm. Many of the compounds (especially PAHs, PCBs and PCDDs) exhibit carcinogenic, teratogenic or mutagenic properties, and hence it is peculiarly important not only to develop a research background allowing to determine trace amounts of organic substances, but also to evaluate the methods capable of constant monitoring of these substances in the environment and their reduction or complete degradation. The paper presents research concerning four of sixteen PAHs included in U.S. EPA list that exhibit toxic activity to human organisms. An influence of the effect of hydrodynamic cavitation on the degradation process of phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene and benz[a]anthracene in model water samples (at a PAH concentration of about 500 ppb) was examined. Selected PAHs were determined by means of gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometer. Ultrasound bath extraction was used as a method for isolating the specific fraction in the taken samples.
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