def remove_special_chars(text: str) -> str:
    """Remove special characters from text
    Inputs
    ------
    text: a string-valued row of a column or a single text string
    Outputs
    -------
    text: a clean string with no special characters
    """
    if not isinstance(text, str):
        print('Non-string text identified, setting field to empty string')
        return str(text)

    for special_chars in [
        '\\',
        '`',
        '*',
        '{',
        '}',
        '[',
        ']',
        '(',
        ')',
        '>',
        '#',
        '^',
        '*',
        '@',
        '!',
        '+',
        '.',
        '%',
        '!',
        '$',
        '&',
        ':',
        '\'',
    ]:
        if special_chars in text:
            text = text.replace(special_chars, "")
    return text