Are We Pouring Our Future Down the Drain?

I don’t know about you, but this drought has me worried. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration researchers together with other federal workers have mapped out drought regions of the U.S.—and it isn’t pretty. From Alaska to Washington State down through Texas and the Southwest, as well as portions of the Midwest and Southeastern seaboard, we are undergoing drought conditions that range from moderate to extreme.

And where there isn’t drought, we’re squandering the water of tomorrow that all of us depend on for life. We might as well be pouring our future precious water supplies down the drain.

So how does all of this affect you? And what could this possibly have to do with your hand dishwashing soap, laundry and automatic dishwashing detergent?

I never thought about this either until a few years ago, when I began testing household cleaning products for a chemical called 1,4-dioxane. Unfortunately, this chemical causes cancer in animals and based on consistently clear and convincing data is thought to be a probable human carcinogen. In fact, the most recent studies, one of which was published in the August 22 online edition of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, have raised dioxane’s potential to cause cancer and interfere genetically with cell replication.

Well, as it turns out, dioxane is showing up in hand dishwashing soap as well. When I began testing liquid hand dishwashing products, including major brands, they all contained—and many still do—this chemical. Dioxane is highly skin permeable and inhaled, and we know that inhalation of this chemicals produces toxic effects. Who really wants to be washing their dishes with soaps that contain this chemical? Many experts say we probably ingest it with our food because of its residues, which are left on plates, bowls, glasses and other serving ware.

Palmolive Pure and Clear Sparkling Fresh Concentrated Dish Liquid contained 8.6 parts per million dioxane; Ajax Dish Liquid Lemon and Joy Ultra Concentrated also tested positive for dioxane, among many other brands.

But just in case you’re wondering how what you pour down the drain is a burgeoning threat to human health, let’s take a look at what happened in Orange County, California, where dioxane-tainted sewage water was injected into fresh drinking water supplies for Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley. Thousands of people were drinking this carcinogen that is known to cause cancers in animals given it in their water. Public authorities closed many wells. Of course, the state of California, as it always does, played down this health risk, came in and saved the day by telling everyone to quit worrying about this silly chemical. But it was real enough that the cost for the cleanup was over $10 million, and Newport Beach alone spent hundreds of thousands of dollars importing water for its residents.

You see, dioxane doesn’t just get into our water at our source. It goes everywhere, and it never breaks down. According to researchers writing in the March 2008 issue of Chemosphere, “As a groundwater contaminant, 1,4-dioxane is of considerable concern because of its toxicity, refractory nature to degradation, and rapid migration within an aquifer.”

A second example: groundwater beneath the city of Ann Arbor is currently contaminated by 1,4 dioxane. Between 1976 and 1985, wastewater containing 1,4-dioxane was sprayed on lawns and stored in unlined lagoons. The chemical seeped through soil and rock layers and into the groundwater and began to spread. Its physical properties allow it to spread rapidly with groundwater. A whole town’s water is now wasted because of this threat that is going to cost millions to remediate, if it can be.

The tragedy here is that these companies could use economical substitutes or perform a process called vacuum stripping to remove this chemical, but they seem to be entrenched in an old fashion, business-as-usual model that does not take into account our dwindling freshwater resources.