Predicting bioavailability of PAHs in field-contaminated soils by passive sampling with triolein embedded cellulose acetate membranes

Triolein embedded cellulose acetate membrane (TECAM) was used for passive sampling of the fraction of naphthalene, phenanthrene, pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene in 18 field-contaminated soils. The sampling process of PAHs by TECAM fitted well with a first-order kinetics model and PAHs reached 95% of equilibrium in TECAM within 20 h. Concentrations of PAHs in TECAM (CTECAM) correlated well with the concentrations in soils (r2 = 0.693–0.962, p < 0.001). Furthermore, concentrations of PAHs determined in the soil solution were very close to the values estimated by CTECAM and the partition coefficient between TECAM and water (KTECAM-w). After lipid normalization nearly 1:1 relationships were observed between PAH concentrations in TECAMs and earthworms exposed to the soils (r2 = 0.591–0.824, n = 18, p < 0.01). These results suggest that TECAM can be a useful tool to predict bioavailability of PAHs in field-contaminated soils.