eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2016-01-07 2 1 15 24 3414 article Y. M. Moustafa 1 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo (Egypt) The distribution of individual PAHs of the reference 16 PAHs listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was determined in tar ball, water and sediment samples. Eight sites with a total of 24 samples were chosen for this study. The sources of PAHs contamination (pyrogenic and petrogenic) were achieved using both PAHs distribution and molecular indices based on ratios of selected PAH concentrations. The contamination is shown to be either petrogenic or mixed petrogenic and pyrolytic. Levels of total PAHs were found to vary between 8.36μg/g and 438.38μg/g for tar ball samples. Water and sediment samples have values ranging between (8.00 ppm -12.08 ppm) and (3.75-4.35 μg/g dry weight.) respectively. The obtained values can be considered to possess serious health risk to both human health and all living organisms. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol2no1/contamination-by-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-in-some-egyptian-mediterranean-coasts/ Contamination; aromatic hydrocarbons; Egyptian mediterranean coasts