Is it true that sewage sludge containing triclosan is applied to farmland?
Sewage sludge is commonly applied to agricultural land (including pasture and range land), forests, reclamation sites, public contact sites (e.g., parks, turf farms, highway median strips, golf courses), lawns, and home gardens. Depending on the sludge quality and heavy metals content, sludges are either burned, land-filled, or land-applied, where any remaining triclosan is biodegraded without harm to terrestrial organisms. Taking the mix of WWTP facility-types into account, we conservatively expect around 25,000 kg/year triclosan to reach agricultural soils from the 2.6 million metric tons of sludge applied annually. Each kilogram of sludge is applied to one square meter of land and is typically worked into around 20 cm of topsoil, therefore diluting it by a factor of 300 (weight/weight). A mass balance, based on all current data, safely excludes any risk to humans or wildlife from secondary exposure to triclosan from any environmental route. To put this into perspective, consider thi
