Interim report of the Committee on Synthetic Detergents.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Synthetic Detergents.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Interim report of the Committee on Synthetic Detergents. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will need special solutions. What we are concentrating on at present is the possible effects of synthetic detergents on sewage purification generally. It is known that, at a large number of sewage works throughout the country, for various reasons unconnected with the use of detergents, efficient operation and production of an effluent up to the required standard are being maintained only with difficulty. If the presence of synthetic detergents in the sewage is adding to the difficulties and causing a worsening in the quality of the effluents dis- charged, there is cause for serious concern—particularly since many sewage works’ effluents are discharged to rivers where there are not only the normal obligations to river authorities, and rights of riparian owners, to be considered, but also the interests of statutory water undertakers who draw water from the rivers for public supply. We are therefore giving special attention to this question. 11. Apart from the question of deterioration in the general quality of sewage effluents, it is clear that some of the constituents in the more widely sold synthetic detergent preparations are only partially destroyed or removed during normal sewage treatment, so that substantial proportions of them are being discharged, in sewage works’ effluents, to rivers—as is shown by chemical examination of the water in a number of rivers below sewage works’ outfalls, where foam has been noted. The foam itself is objectionable, but there is also the question whether concentrations of these materials are likely to be such as directly or indirectly to harm river life or river-drawn water supplies. This is another matter to which we are giving special attention. 12. As already stated, our investigations will necessarily be lengthy. Some of the complicating factors involved are mentioned below; they make it particu- larly desirable that all generalisations about the effects of synthetic detergents should be treated with great caution. (a) The several types of synthetic detergent preparations have different properties. If a particular type has any significant effect on sewage purification it may be gradual and cumulative; its assessment is the more difficult in that, at any particular sewage works over a given period, and apart from changes in the nature and amount of the detergents present, changes in the quantity and nature of the sewage or in the capacity and operation of the works may mask or falsify any effects of the detergents. (b) The active detergent materiais used as a basis for the marketed preparations are not single chemical compounds capable of exact definition and analysis. In marketed preparations the active detergent materials are accom- panied by other substances that may extend or modify their properties and may themselves have properties relevant to this enquiry. — (c (d) Accurate methods of determining small concentrations of synthetic detergents in sewage and trade effluents have still to be devised. (e) The scope for large-scale experimental work on synthetic detergents in . relation to sewage and water treatment is limited by statutory and common law restrictions on river pollution and by the need to safe- guard at all times the sewage purification and water supply services. 13. To sum up: Available evidence about the effects of the growing use of synthetic detergents does not justify any immediate alarm in users or the public health services. There is definitely nuisance at some sewage works, however,