Projection of environmental risk of selected organic chemicals in China: Implication to sustainable development

China’s rapid economic growth in the past decade has resulted in market growth for the home and personal care products (HPCPs) industry. This growth needs to be counter balanced with Sustainable Development Goals set by the... [ view full abstract ]

China’s rapid economic growth in the past decade has resulted in market growth for the home and personal care products (HPCPs) industry. This growth needs to be counter balanced with Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations to reduce chemical releases to wastewater and to protect the water-related ecosystem. Six daily use chemicals, benzophenone-3, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate, triclosan, triclocarban and climbazole were selected to evaluate their environmental risk both in 2012 and under future growth scenarios. Emissions for 2012 were compiled by estimating the usage and wastewater treatment rates. Environmental concentrations were predicted using the SESAMe v3.3 model. Predictions suggested that some freshwater areas of China may exhibit chronic environmental risks owing to triclosan. The predicted environmental concentrations of the other five chemicals were under current ecotoxicity thresholds. Predictions also suggested that agriculture soil could potentially be an important sink for triclosan, climbazole and benzophenone-3, although the concentrations would be low. However, the expected rising middle class and GDP in China will drive further demand. This may be counter balanced by the development of wastewater treatment capacity to removing these chemicals and be complicated considering long-term changes in riverine flows. A preliminary evaluation of future projections implies that increasing demand and usage of these chemicals by 2030 would not result in higher environmental risks compared to the current scenario due to the expected rapid infrastructure construction for wastewater treatment. The methodology can be applied for other emerging or industrial chemicals as a reference for business and environmental sustainable development.