Liquid chromatography columns of 100% polydivinylbenzene (DVB) (packing) were used to remove lipid material from fish extracts before analysis of several semivolatile organic pollutants by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). This packing material was found to be durable as the columns could be operated to about 900 p.s.i. resulting in high efficiency separation. Recoveries and relative standard deviations for 18 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons fortified into a fish extract and cleaned up by multiple DVB columns in series were in the range of 86 to 123% and 4 to 11%, respectively.