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Snow and air particulate samples collected in Upper Frankonia, Federal Republic of Germany, have been analyzed for nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and PAH content. A novel clean-up technique has been developed enabling interfering organochlorine environmental contaminants to be removed prior to analysis of the hydrocarbons by GC-MS. Mass fragmentation patterns are presented for 1-nitropyrene, 6-nitrobenzo(a)pyrene, 6-nitrochrysene, and 3-nitrofluoranthene. The level of these compounds found in air samples was in the range of 0.2-2.0 ng.m-3 with the exception of 6-nitrobenzo(a)pyrene, which was not detected. This compares with PAH values of between 1 and 6 ng.m-3. The freshly fallen snow sample collected at the side of a motorway had no detectable PAHs or nitro-PAHs. Parallel studies on the bacterial mutagenicity of the collected air samples using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 in the presence and absence of aroclor-induced rat liver "S9" revealed both "direct" and "indirect" activity. Larger numbers of mutants were induced in the presence of S9 than in its absence. The snow sample was devoid of mutagenic activity. These studies show the utility of the biological approach to screen environmental samples prior to expensive and time-consuming chemical analysis.