Triclosan in contaminated environment: A comprehensive review of source, distribution, toxic effects and removal technologies.

Triclosan (TCS) is an effective antibacterial agent widely used in personal care products and medical items. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of TCS has significantly increased, leading to a growing pollution issue that has attracted considerable attention. Therefore, assessing the current TCS pollution status is vital. This review discusses distribution and migration of TCS across various environmental matrices and wastewater treatment systems. Especially, the study summarizes the concentration differences of TCS in human and biological tissues across different countries, finding higher TCS pollution levels in economically developed and densely populated regions. TCS detection methods provide technical support for assessing the distribution of TCS pollution. This paper evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of various pretreatment methods while exploring the development of different detection techniques. Optimized methods are now capable of analyzing TCS in complex matrices, with some methods achieving detection limits in the nanogram range. Notably, TCS has toxic hazards, and can be transformed into more toxic substances in the environment. It induces adverse effects on organismal growth, development, and reproduction, including inhibiting photosynthesis, reducing hatch rates, and increasing cancer incidence. Therefore, developing effective TCS removal technologies is important for environmental protection and human health. This paper systematically analyzes degradation pathways and removal efficiencies of various TCS removal technologies, offering theoretical guidance for TCS pollution management. In summary, this study offers new theoretical insights and practical solutions for tackling TCS pollution, supporting environmental management and public health policy development.