Marketing vs. reality: using a battery of bioassays to assess the acute toxicity of environmentally friendly detergents
Household detergents are an important source of complex mixtures of anthropogenic substances entering municipal wastewater systems and, subsequently, receiving waters. This study presents a comparative assessment of the acute ecotoxicity of conventional detergents and their environmentally certified counterparts (EU Ecolabel) using a battery of bioassays representing different trophic levels. The tests included the luminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri, the water flea Daphnia magna, the green alga Desmodesmus subspicatus, and seeds of white mustard Sinapis alba.