Laundry Detergent: the Effect of Pollution on Lakes and Rivers

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Nearly everyone is aware of the smog we breathe, the oil fouling our beaches and the mountain of
Nearly everyone is aware of the smog we breathe, the oil fouling our beaches and the mountain of "one-way" containers filling the canyons, all the major ecological problems.
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List of detergent products and their phosphate content.
List of detergent products and their phosphate content.

Reprinted with permission from the Los Angeles Free Press.

Nearly everyone is aware of the effects of pollution: the smog we breathe, the oil fouling our beaches and the mountain of “one-way” containers filling the canyons, all the major ecological problems. As desert residents, however, we have less contact with a problem which has reached gigantic proportions in the lakes and rivers of the East and the Midwest–eutrophication. Many lakes are dead or dying, and they are being killed by our “cleaner than clean” clothes, dishes and homes. California, for its scarcity of lakes, is not immune.

Laundry Detergent and the Effect of Pollution

In 1965, detergent manufacturers began producing “bio-degradable” products. This changeover eliminated a major pollution eyesore–detergent foam on rivers, but biodegradability is not enough. We must now be concerned with the effects of the elements into which the new biodegradable detergents decompose.

Eutrophication

  • Published on Nov 1, 1970
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