Detergent Ingredients Are Safe, Says ACI

A comprehensive review of five decades’ worth of research shows that high volume use of major detergent ingredients have had no adverse environmental impacts to waterways and river sediments, according to a paper co-authored by the American Cleaning Institute. The review article was published in the peer-reviewed journal Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (Volume 44, Issue 17, 2014).

The paper highlights over five decades of surfactant research and stewardship activities undertaken by ACI and its member companies, and brings together a wide array of research from government, academic and other sources. Surfactants are the key workhorse ingredients in many detergents and cleaning products. During the past 50 years, ACI and its members have spent at least $30 million on the assessment and reporting of the environmental safety of the major surfactants.

The article, “Environmental Safety of the Use of Major Surfactant Classes in North America,” brings together over 250 published and unpublished studies on the environmental properties, fate and toxicity of the four major, high-volume surfactant classes and relevant feedstocks: alcohol sulfate (AS), alcohol ethoxysulfate (AES), linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), alcohol ethoxylate (AE), and long-chain alcohol (LCOH).

The paper also highlights the many years of research within the surfactant and cleaning products industry.

More info: www.ACIscience.org