Aquatic Fate Assessment for Consumer Product Ingredients in Japan

Abstract

An environmental risk assessment is typically conducted to determine the environmental safety of new and existing substances. Within this assessment process, fate and effects assessments are performed for each environmental compartment that receives a substance of concern. The fate assessment involves estimating environmental concentrations to which organisms will be exposed. This prediction is based on an understanding of the emission pathways as well as what ultimately happens to a substance when it is released into the environment. In this paper, a mathematical model was developed to estimate the concentration of consumer product ingredients in a river as a result of multiple discharges. This model was tested with linear alkylbenzenesulf onate (LAS), a major ingredient in many laundry and cleaning products, using information on the emission routes of consumer product ingredients for the Tamagawa River basin in Japan.