No. 14 (August 2001)

The ceremony was followed by a celebration attended by about 500 people. Chairman Iwashita delivered his greetings and guests made commemorative speeches. From overseas, Chairman Seong-Soo, Yoo (Korea Soap and Detergent Association) and Chief Director Ying-Yuan, Chang (Taiwan Soap and Detergent Manufacturers Association) each gave a speech and presented a token memento. JSDA enjoys close relations with these Korean and Taiwanese soap and detergent associations; ties with them began to deepen toward the end of the 1990s through the establishment of ASDAC.
Main Soap and detergent events in the past 50 years

1950 The predecessor to JSDA was established.
1963 Production of synthetic detergent exceeded that of soap.
1972 Changing from home-use ABS to LAS was completed.
1973 The association was reestablished as JSDA.
1974 First edition of "CLEAN AGE" was issued.
1985 Switch to non-phosphate detergents was completed.
1987 Sales of detergent in compact types started.
1990 International symposium to commemorate JSDA's 40th anniversary was held.
1991 Detergent in compact types accounted for over 80% of synthetic powder detergent production.
1995 The package recycling law was enacted.
1997 The first ASDAC was held.
2000 JSDA home page was set up.

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■Growing use of AE in detergents

Besides LAS and DADMAC, in recent years alcohol ethoxylate (AE), a new type of non-ionic surfactant, has been added to the survey. The problem with the conventional cobalt isocyanate method (CTAS) is that it is difficult to isolate AE or other non-ionic surfactants for measuring their concentration in the environment. Further, measurable minimum limit is high with this method, while the method being susceptible to other substances in the water. Because of these problems, its measurement results are often questioned.

■Reliable method developed to measure
AE concentration in the environment

The committee has continued surveys for three years since 1998, entrusting Chemicals Evaluation and Research Institute, Japan with the analysis of AE and other substances. They have now developed a method, based on liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS), to measure AE concentration with precision. The method allows the user to select target substances and measure their concentrations; measurement results are highly reliable even down to micron order (μg/L, ppb=1/1000 ppm). This will be extremely useful in assessing risks to the bio-system.

■Insignificant AE concentrations

In this water quality study, samples were taken from five points including Hamura Dike on the Tama River (Tokyo) and Hirakata Ohashi on the Yodo River (Osaka). These points satisfied the following conditions: fit for the reproduction and sustenance of aquatic organisms; classified A, B or C of six ranks (from AA to E) in the environmental quality standard (these ranks set by the Ministry of the Environment show the desirable water quality of the river); and sources of water for drinking are included in these areas.
Measurements show that AE concentrations in the environment are very low and that they are far below the level at which aquatic organisms can live without problem. VROM of the Netherlands and SDA of the US set the maximum allowable concentration of AE at 110 μg/L after they had reviewed many reports on the toxicity of AE on aquatic organisms. In this study, AE concentrations differed slightly from one sampling point to another (see Table 1), but their measurements all fall within 0.15-12 μg/L, or 0.72-4.3 μg/L on average at these five sampling points. Further, as it has been reported that the foaming limit concentration of the non-ionic surfactant is 50 μg/L in tap water, there is no problem with foaming in purified water. As these results clearly show, AE concentrations in these rivers are extremely small; in fact, they are one digit lower than those of LAS.
These findings show that AE concentrations in Japan are far less than the foaming limit level or the maximum tolerance level for the sustenance of aquatic organisms in the river, and that they therefore pose no environmental problem.

The study also found that these AE concentrations vary slightly throughout the year; they are lower in summer and higher in winter. It is believed that this reflects various phenomena that take place in the environment such that AE breaks down faster in summer than in winter, the amount of precipitation varies, etc.

■Frequency of clothes laundry

The frequency of washing remained virtually unchanged from three years ago: single women washed their clothes 2.6 days a week, whereas homemakers did so almost every day, about 6 days a week. Also unchanged was the time of doing clothes laundry: most single women washed their clothes at night, while most homemakers did so in the morning, but people washed their clothes after nine at night has increased for both single women and homemakers versus 3 years ago.

■Product usage and instructions on the package

Regarding how to measure the amount of detergent per washing, the majority relied on the instructions printed on the product package, but some single women, 35 percent of them, measured the amount by eye. As for the type of detergent, more than 60 percent of both single women and homemakers said they used refillable products whenever possible.
The survey also studied the degree to which instructions on the product package are relied on when people wash their clothes. About 45.5% (51% in the previous survey) of single women and 55.1% (56%) of homemakers said that they would check the instructions at each washing; both figures were slightly smaller than those in the previous survey.

■Frequency of house cleaning & amount of time

The survey also studied when and how often the respondents cleaned parts of their houses (see Graph 2). For single women, the cleaning frequency was lower than in the last survey for all parts of the house, except for the living room, but they spent slightly more time for cleaning all parts of the house. This trend was about the same among homemakers: less often, but at least equal time to make up for fewer cleaning occasions. One probable reason for this trend is that there has been a decrease in the number of full-time homemakers, and an increase in the numbers with jobs.

■Cleaning products, tools used in house cleaning

There are new cleaning products and tools for a variety of purposes, and many of them are being used in house cleaning. There has been a significant increase in the use of disposable paper mops and cleaning products for floors, especially among single women who used them twice as much as they did in the previous survey. Disposable paper mops were used by 70 percent of single women and 60 percent of homemakers, indicating a change from tatami floor mats and carpets to flooring.
People also began to use deodorants and disinfectants for fabrics such as curtain and detergent impregnated paper wipes; these products were not found in the previous survey. About 30 percent of single women and 25 percent of homemakers used them, as found by this survey, indicating growing concerns for cleanliness among Japanese people.