Washington: Beware ladies. Toiletries
and other cleaning products contain ingredients that form
cancer-causing contaminant in water, a new study has claimed.
Scientists at the Department of Chemical Engineering of
Yale University have found that certain ingredients in
shampoos, detergent and other household cleaning agents may be
a source for formation of suspected cancer-causing contaminant
in water that is supplied from sewage treatment plants.
The study sheds new light on possible environmental
sources of this poorly understood water contaminant, called
NDMA, which is of ongoing concern to health officials,
Environmental Science and Technology journal reported.
The team said, scientists have known that NDMA and other
nitrosamines can form in small amounts during the disinfection
of wastewater and water with chloramine, but while they found
nitrosamines in a wide variety of sources like processed meats
and tobacco smoke, they did not have any knowledge about their
precursors in water.
"Earlier studies with cosmetics have found that
substances called quaternary amines, which are also
ingredients in household cleaning agents, may play a role in
the formation of nitrosamines," lead author William Mitch
said.
The new study showed that when mixed with chloramine,
some household cleaning products including shampoo,
dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent - formed NDMA.
It noted that sewage treatment plants may remove some of
quaternary amines that form NDMA.
Mitch said, "However, quaternary amines are used in such
large quantities that some still may persist and have a
potentially harmful effect in the effluents from sewage
treatment plants".
PTI
First Published: Thursday, April 08, 2010, 17:45