Impact of biosolids on the persistence and dissipation pathways of triclosan and triclocarban in an agricultural soil

The broad spectrum antimicrobial agents triclosan (TCS) and triclocarban (TCC) are widely used in many personal care products. Knowledge concerning the fate of these two compounds in different environmental matrices is scarce. In this study, the fate of TCS and TCC in soil following direct addition, or when residues were applied via either liquid municipal biosolids (LMB) or dewatered municipal biosolids (DMB) was investigated in laboratory dissipation experiments and under outdoor conditions using radioisotope methods. In laboratory incubations, C-14-TCC or C-14-TCS was added to microcosms containing a loam soil and the rate of (CO2)-C-14 accumulation and loss of solvent-extractable C-14 were determined during incubation at 30 degrees C. Compared to when TCC or TCS was added directly to soil, both chemicals were mineralized more rapidly when applied in LMB, and both were mineralized more slowly when applied in DMB. The application matrix had no effect on the rate of removal of extractable residues. In field experiments, parent compounds were incorporated directly in soil, incorporated via LMB, or a single aggregate of amended DMB was applied to the soil surface. During the experiment soil temperatures ranged from 20 degrees C to 10 degrees C. Dissipation was much slower in the field than in the laboratory experiments. Removal of non-extractable residues was faster in the presence of LMB than the other treatments. Recovery of extractable and non-extractable residues suggested that there was little atmospheric loss of 14 degrees C. Triclocarban readily formed non-extractable residues with DMB whereas TCS did not. Overall. this study has identified that both the pathways and the kinetics of TCS and TCC dissipation in soil are different when the chemicals are carried in biosolids compared to when these chemicals are added directly to the soil. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.