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Water Science & Technology Vol 43 No 5 pp 245–250 © IWA Publishing 2001 The nonionic surfactant pollution profile of Israel Mediterranean Sea coastal waterU Zoller* and M Hushan***
Department of Science Education-Chemistry,
Haifa University-Oranim Kiryat Tivon 36006, Israel
ABSTRACT Anionic and nonionic surfactants, as core components of detergent formulations, contribute significantly to the pollution profile of sewage and wastewaters of all kinds. In Israel about 15% of the total amount of ca. 4  108 m3/year of sewage is
discharged, directly, or via receiving streams/rivers, into the
Mediterranean Sea. Based on our previous findings that about 85%
of the nonionic surfactants in the country's sewage are nonbiodegradable
alkylphenol-based ethoxylates, we have undertaken this study, aiming at
mapping the receiving eastern Mediterranean seawater with respect to its
nonionic surfactant pollution profile. The total concentrations of
nonionic surfactants were found – via reverse phase HPLC determinations
– to be within the range of 4.2–25.0 ppb in seawater samples
taken 2–3 m off the coastline at those locations where
sewage-containing streams flow into the sea. Thus, neither the existing
sewage treatment facilities nor natural biodegradation processes in
receiving surface water systems are capable of avoiding this coastal water pollution. The potential estrogenic health risk of
such concentrations of the anthropogenic EPEOs is dependent, among
other things, on their specific homological distribution, biodegradation
rate (slower for those having >10 EO units) and survival.
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