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Through its Design for the Environment (DfE) Alternatives Assessment Plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) released a final alternatives assessment report identifying eight safer alternatives to nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), which are widely used in industry as surfactants and wetting agents for detergents, cleaners, carriers and other commercial uses. When released into the environment, NPEs and NPE degradates can degrade slowly and be highly toxic to aquatic animals.
The report provides information on the availability of safer alternatives, as well as the DfE’s hazard evaluation method for surfactants and the progress being made in adopting safer surfactants. Using hazard-based criteria, EPA evaluated hundreds of chemicals for biodegradability and the potential effects to aquatic organisms.
DfE’s Alternatives Assessment Program is intended to help industry choose safer chemical and offers a basis for informed decision-making by providing a detailed comparison of the potential human and environmental effects of chemical alternatives. To date, the DfE program has labeled more than 2,700 safer products, including detergents that contain only safer surfactants and other chemicals.
For the list of safer alternatives and more information on the methodology used to select them, visit http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/npe/aa-for-NPEs-final-version5-3-12.pdf.