Triclosan (TCS) and triclocarban (TCC) are two active ingredients widely used in many home and personal care products. Multimedia fate of TCS and TCC in the Dongjiang River basin, South China were addressed by the developed level III fugacity model based on their usage. Under the assumption of steady state, the concentrations in air, water, soil, sediment, suspended particulate matter (SPM) and fish as well as transfer flux across the interface between the compartments were simulated. The measured concentrations for the two compounds in water, SPM, and sediment from field monitoring campaigns were then compared to validate the model. The results showed that the model predicted reasonably accurate concentrations and the differences between the measured and modeled concentrations were all less than 0.7 log units. TCS and TCC had a tendency to distribute into the sediment phase, which accounted for more than 66.3% and 90.3% of the total masses, respectively. Wastewater discharge was the main source for the occurrence of the two compounds in the aquatic environment, while degradation was the primary process for the loss in the study area, followed by the advection export.Sensitivity analysis showed that the most influential parameters for the fate of the target chemicals were source term, degradation rates and adsorption coefficients. Monte Carlo simulation could well describe the modeling uncertainty and variability.
Environmental impactPersonal care products are widely used in everyday life. Aer use, they are discharged into the receiving environments directly or indirectly. Their detection in the environment has become an increasing concern due to their potential impacts on the ecosystem. This paper developed a modied level III fugacity model to assess the multimedia fate of two personal care products (triclosan and triclocarban) in a river basin based on their usage data and evaluated the model by eld monitoring data in the Dongjiang River Basin. The modied steady state fugacity model can be used to evaluate contamination of personal care products at the basin scale based on their usage. This tool could be adopted by various decision-makers in the management of chemicals in river basins.