Researchers Emphasize the Need to Monitor Rivers for Triclosan
Ever heard of triclosan? As an antibacterial and antifungal
agent, it is used in everything from toothpaste, to soaps, socks
and trash bags. While the US Food and Drug Administration, the
Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Union all
regulate triclosan, the chemical is not monitored and often gets
absorbed into sewage sludge after wastewater treatment.
Researchers from Germany and Slovakia are claiming that
triclosan is harmful to the ecology of rivers and are calling
for further monitoring of the chemical. After monitoring the
Elbe river basin, concentrations of the chemical at various test
sites were found to exceed the predicted no-effect concentration
for algal communities. From the 500 river basin-specific
pollutants investigated, triclosan ranked sixth as one of the
most particularly harmful substances in Europe. According to an
article published in the journal Environmental Science Pollution
Research, scientists want to emphas