Detection of the antimicrobials triclocarban and triclosan in agricultural soils following land application of municipal biosolids

Abstract

The occurrence of the antimicrobials triclocarban (TCC) and triclosan (TCS) was investigated in agricultural soils following land application of biosolids using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS–MS) with negative ion multimode ionization. The method detection limits were 0.58 ng TCC/g soil, 3.08 ng TCC/g biosolids, 0.05 ng TCS/g soil and 0.11 ng TCS/g biosolids and the average recovery from all of the sample matrices was >95%. Antimicrobial concentrations in biosolids from three Michigan wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) ranged from 4890 to 9280 ng/g, and from 90 to 7060 ng/g, for TCC and TCS respectively. Antimicrobial analysis of soil samples, collected over two years, from ten agricultural sites previously amended with biosolids, indicated TCC was present at higher concentrations (1.24–7.01 ng/g and 1.20–65.10 ng/g in 2007 and 2008) compared to TCS (0.16–1.02 ng/g and from the method detection limit, <0.05–0.28 ng/g in 2007 and 2008). Soil antimicrobial concentrations could not be correlated to any soil characteristic, or to the time of last biosolids application, which occurred in either 2003, 2004 or 2007. To our knowledge, our data represent the first report of TCC, and the first comparison of TCC and TCS concentrations, in biosolids-amended agricultural soils. Such information is important because approximately 50% of US biosolids are land applied, therefore, any downstream effects of either antimicrobial are likely to be widespread.