This paper brings together over 250 published and unpublished studies on the environmental properties, fate, and toxicity of the four major, high-volume surfactant classes and relevant feedstocks. The surfactants and feedstocks covered include alcohol sulfate or alcohol sulfate (AS), alcohol ethoxysulfate (AES), linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), alcohol ethoxylate (AE), and long-chain alcohol (LCOH). These chemicals are used in a wide range of personal care and cleaning products. To date, this is the most comprehensive report on these substance's chemical structures, use, and volume information, physical/chemical properties, environmental fate properties such as biodegradation and sorption, monitoring studies through sewers, wastewater treatment plants and eventual release to the environment, aquatic and sediment toxicity, and bioaccumulation information. These data are used to illustrate the process for conducting both prospective and retrospective risk assessments for large-volume chemicals and categories of chemicals with wide dispersive use. Prospective risk assessments of AS, AES, AE, LAS, and LCOH demonstrate that these substances, although used in very high volume and widely released to the aquatic environment, have no adverse impact on the aquatic or sediment environments at current levels of use. The retrospective risk assessments of these same substances have clearly demonstrated that the conclusions of the prospective risk assessments are valid and confirm that these substances do not pose a risk to the aquatic or sediment environments. This paper also highlights the many years of research that the surfactant and cleaning products industry has supported, as part of their environmental sustainability commitment, to improve environmental tools, approaches, and develop innovative methods appropriate to address environmental properties of personal care and cleaning product chemicals, many of which have become approved international standard methods.

中文翻译：

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北美主要表面活性剂使用的环境安全

本文汇集了 250 多项已发表和未发表的关于四种主要、高容量表面活性剂类别和相关原料的环境特性、归宿和毒性的研究。涵盖的表面活性剂和原料包括醇硫酸盐或醇硫酸盐 (AS)、醇乙氧基硫酸盐 (AES)、直链烷基苯磺酸盐 (LAS)、醇乙氧基化物 (AE) 和长链醇 (LCOH)。这些化学品广泛用于个人护理和清洁产品。迄今为止，这是关于这些物质的化学结构、用途和体积信息、物理/化学特性、生物降解和吸附等环境归宿特性、通过下水道、废水处理厂和最终释放到环境中的监测研究的最全面的报告，水生和沉积物毒性，和生物积累信息。这些数据用于说明对大量化学品和广泛使用的化学品类别进行前瞻性和回顾性风险评估的过程。对 AS、AES、AE、LAS 和 LCOH 的前瞻性风险评估表明，虽然这些物质的使用量非常大并广泛释放到水生环境中，但在当前使用水平下对水生或沉积物环境没有不利影响。这些相同物质的回顾性风险评估清楚地表明，前瞻性风险评估的结论是有效的，并确认这些物质不会对水生或沉积物环境构成风险。本文还重点介绍了表面活性剂和清洁产品行业多年来支持的研究，