The efficiency of constructed wetlands for the removal of the antimicrobial agent triclosan from wastewater

摘要

This work provides a comprehensive overview of the presence of theantimicrobial agent triclosan in wastewater, the environmental and health concerns this poses, and a summary of current research on its removal through various wastewatertreatment methods. Constructed wetlands are an alternative onsite wastewater treatmentand this study researched triclosan removal rates for operational subsurface constructedwetlands functioning for onsite treatment. It also compared two different types ofconstructed wetland system designs and their efficiency in removing triclosan fromdomestic wastewater. The findings suggest that constructed wetlands significantlycontribute to triclosan removal in onsite systems with a removal range of 15 to 56%though no significant differences were found between horizontal flow constructedwetlands and vertical flow wetlands in their removal efficiencies for triclosan. Fourspecies of wetland plants commonly used in constructed wetland systems wereinvestigated in a laboratory wetland setting for their contribution to triclosan removalfrom a constructed wetland system. No significant differences were found in triclosanremoval among the four plant species or between the planted and unplanted controlcontainers suggesting that the dominant removal mechanism for triclosan in constructedwetlands is not dependent on the plant communities.