A switch by consumers to phosphate-free detergents would quickly lead to significant improvement in Irish freshwater, which is increasingly threatened by phosphate pollution, according to the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI).
It has joined the environmental group, Coastwatch Europe, to front a campaign urging shoppers to buy phosphate-free detergents. They also called yesterday on the detergent industry to have clearer labelling on packaging.
Dr Tom Taylor, of the Irish Detergent and Allied Products Association, said the industry was moving to ensure consumer choice, but switching to phosphate-free was not the total solution.
"The cheapest and fastest way to reduce phosphorus inputs (into water) is to avoid it in detergent," said Ms Karin Dubsky of Coastwatch Europe. "If only consumers could find the well-hidden ingredient on packaging, they could choose to buy low (less than 5 per cent) or zero phosphate detergent."
Coastwatch supported the campaign after finding high levels of phosphate in waterways near coastal locations in a survey last autumn. The Department of the Environment has endorsed the campaign. In conjunction with the industry, it has a target of a 50 per cent reduction of phosphate loading in freshwater from detergents by the middle of next year, said Mr Frank Gallagher, of the Department's water quality section.
The CAI has published a survey of detergents being sold in retail outlets in the July issue of Consumer Choice magazine. Two of the three biggest-selling brands - Radion and Ariel - are close to being phosphorus-free. According to the CAI survey, the market leader, Persil, has only one category with low amounts of phosphorus (its concentrated powders), and none that is phosphorus-free. Radion had one liquid product containing phosphorus, though its complete range will soon be phosphate-free. Ariel products were found to be phosphate-free but some had small amounts of a related phosphorus form known as phosphonate, which is in many detergents.
Other brands containing very little phosphorus or phosphorus-free are: Bold, Dreft, Ecover, Fairy, Filetti, Woolite and Daz, a Consumer Choice researcher, Ms Niamh Roche, said. Dr Taylor said consumers should be aware that phosphorus was a valuable nutrient. It was not a pollutant, though he accepted it was "over-feeding the rivers". But detergents represented "only 8 per cent of the problem", with agriculture responsible for 80 per cent of phosphate loadings.
Dr Jim Bowman, of the Environmental Protection Agency, rejected any suggestion that phosphate was not a pollutant. Reducing phosphate loadings could lead to an immediate chemical improvement in water and a biological response within a matter of months, he said.
