Abstract
The moss Pleurozium schreberi was used to evaluate the emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at Polish cemeteries on the All Saints' Day, when Poles traditionally light candles and candle lamps in memory of the deceased. Moss samples were exposed for 7 days at 4 cemeteries and, for comparison, in a city centre and in a rural area. During exposition, the mean content of 16 monitored PAHs in the samples increased by 455 ng/g at the cemeteries and by 689 ng g-1 in the city centre. In the rural area, the samples showed no statistically significant changes. PAHs whose content increased only in the moss samples exposed at the cemeteries included naphthalene, pyrene, benzo[b]fluoranthene together with benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[g,h,i]perylene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene. The concentrations of other PAHs increased in samples exposed in the city centre and at two cemeteries located in the suburban areas. The results presented confirm the possibility of using mosses in biomonitoring of PAHs.