Research Progress on Environmental Effects and Health Risks of Liquid Crystal Monomers.

Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) are significant chemicals commonly used in thin-film transform liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD). With the huge number of LCD devices produced, many such devices end up being discarded and at best end up in e-waste sites, which raises the worry of eventually being released and entering into the natural environment. Now they have been detected in diverse sites, such as e-waste dismantling sites, landfills, and residences. As a new class of potential emerging pollutants with persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity, LCMs have certain environmental impacts and health risks, which deserve more attention. This paper briefly reviews the research progress of analysis methods, composition and distribution in the environment, and transformation mechanism in the atmosphere of LCMs. At the same time, in view of the environmental behavioral parameters and toxicity of LCMs, this paper expounds the shortcomings of health risk assessment methods and relative research of LCMs. Some suggestions for the comprehensive assessment of LCMs in environmental media, traceability, migration and transformation of LCMs in the environment, and toxicological studies of LCMs with high detection rates are also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]