A detergent is any substance or mixture containing soaps and/or other surfactants intended for washing and cleaning. Phosphates have become one of the major constituents in cleaning products to counter the hardness of water and enhance cleaning efficiency in recent years. Compounds that contain phosphates are most commonly used as softening agents to enhance the washing process. Unfortunately, detergents persist after water treatment and are discharged into bodies of water such as rivers and lakes. The phosphates they contain are nutrients that invigorate the growth of elementary aquatic organisms such as algae. Discharges of excess amounts of phosphates into aquatic bodies result in eutrophication: the over-abundance of nutrients gives rise to a sudden growth of large volumes of algae, depleting the oxygen available in the water and impacting fish and other creatures in the aquatic environment. This development often has a highly visible effect, turning lakes and rivers a bright green, and raising concerns over the use of phosphates in detergents. Proposed and adopted regulations for limiting the use of phosphorous compounds in the United States, Canada and Europe are patchy and there are wide differences in the legislative landscape.

European Union
Regulation (EU) 259/2012 (eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:094:0016:0021:EN:PDF) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on March 14, 2012 to set the future limits to phosphates in dishwasher and laundry washing detergents. The regulations recognize the technical difficulties in finding alternatives to the phosphates and the phosphorous compounds presently used in detergents, and so provide generous sunset dates. For automatic dishwasher detergent a limit of 0.3 grams of phosphorous per standard dose becomes effective from January 2017 and a limit of 0.5 grams of phosphorous per standard dose, according to soiling in laundry detergent designed for use in hard water areas, becomes effective at the end of June 2013.

Canada
The use of phosphorus is restricted by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999 (laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-89-501/page-1...s-8.), which became effective in July 2010. This regulation defines limits according to the proportions of both phosphorous (P) and phosphorous pentoxide (P205) in a detergent. The limits for household detergents for laundry, dishwashers and cleaning products of 0.5% P and 1.1% P205 is much lower than that allowed for commercial or industrial laundry detergents of 2.2% P and 5% P205.

United States
At present there are no federal bans on the use of phosphorous in detergents. However, phosphorus in dishwasher detergents has been restricted to 0.5% in Spokane and Whatcom counties in the State of Washington (www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/nonpoint/phosphorus/law.html) since 2008, and in 16 states there has been a voluntary limitation to this level since July 2010. The states where it is voluntary are: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Laundry detergents are similarly restricted in some states, which have introduced a limit of 0.5% of phosphorous.

About SGS Household Care Services
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Contact details:

SGS Consumer Testing Services
Susanna Tsang
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t.: +852 2765 3672 Ext. 1672
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