Detergents legislative framework and ecotoxicological testing methodology

Abstract

Detergents industry is a competitive industry, with a large opening to innovation and economical development. Although very useful for sanitation, the big domestic and industrial detergents consumption has a significant contribution to surfactants concentrations increase in towns sewage and implicit to surface water contamination. At European level, detergents and cleaning products have a special place in legislative framework of the European Community because are manufactured in big quantity and they may affect the environment both during manufacture and using processes. In the last years surfactants biodegradability was the most significant problem. For this reason, at European level through Regulation (EC) No 2004/648 (and its next amendments), strict regulations were introduced in order to assure the environment and human health safety. After Romania adhesion to the EU, the European Regulation of detergents becomes also an applicable law at national level through Governmental Decision No 658 /2007. The present paper wants to give a special attention for the following aspects: (1) the national and international legislative framework concerning the commercial surfactants – products for human use, in order to assure their free circulation on the market; (2) the requirements of Detergents European Regulation concerning the final biodegradability of surfactants and complementary risk assessment for their potential recalcitrant metabolites on aquatic organisms; (3) the most practical and sensible methods for surfactants ecotoxicological testing.