Eco-responsible products: household micropollution higher than industrial pollution

It's Monday morning, I turn off my alarm and rush to the shower. A dab of shower gel, a generous portion of shampoo for my long hair, a good handful of my hair mask and a dose of my personal hygiene cleanser. Towel on my hair, I prepare my breakfast, then I clean my cup with a drop of dishwashing liquid, and I wipe the table with a surface cleaner. Before starting to work from home, I start a washing machine with 2 caps of detergent and a dose of fabric softener. Then I head to the sink, I brush my teeth with my toothpaste and I put on makeup with my 5 favorite products. A few brushes in my hair, and of course, I stay in my pajamas because today is working from home!

And you, what is your routine?

So this morning I used 14 everyday products that went into my wastewater. Do you have the same results as me?

What is micropollution?

When we use chemicals in our daily lives (shower gel, shampoo, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, etc.) they end up in our wastewater after use. These products are made up of a mixture of chemical molecules that are little or not treated by sanitation solutions. current. Indeed, wastewater treatment plants are designed to treat only suspended matter, organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus. These chemical molecules are therefore found in the watercourses where the treated water is discharged and are thus called micropollutants.

A micropollutant is defined as "a substance present in the environment in very low concentrations (of the order of micrograms per liter, μg/l), the presence of which is, at least in part, due to human activity, and which can at these very low concentrations cause negative effects on living organisms."

Indeed, these chemical molecules, even at very low concentrations, can cause harmful and toxic effects on our ecosystems : carcinogenic and mutagenic effects, neurotoxic effects, or even endocrine disruption effects. These effects can be caused by the substance or by a "cocktail effect" resulting from the synergy of the substances.

My pollution VS industrial pollution

We use a few products in our daily lives while manufacturers use large quantities of chemicals during their processes. It's true! But several studies have shown that households are the primary source of urban micropollutants !

Of the micropollutants studied, concentrations are higher in household wastewater compared to hospital and industrial effluents. This is the case, for example, of the surfactants most used in detergents , which were measured at 2,000 μg/l in domestic effluents compared to 500 μg/l in hospital effluents.

What is our perception of the relationship between wastewater and micropollution?

The study shows that around 40% of the population has no knowledge of the small water cycle and therefore does not make an informed connection between domestic waste and micropollution of the natural environment.

Eco-responsible products: to go further...

This article is a summary of the conclusions drawn from a publication by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), released in December 2021. If you are also passionate about this subject, I invite you to read it in its entirety: "Micropollutants emitted by domestic uses and crafts: changing practices to better preserve water" .

In addition, we had the opportunity to attend a conference and debate on the issue of territorialization of health. My first surprise was that even before the mention of the problems of mask stocks during the COVID crisis or even the shortage of caregivers in public structures, the issue of environmental protection was addressed. Indeed, health stakeholders are aiming for a transition from a curative to a preventive health system. And in common sense, this assembly recalled that evolving in a healthy environment is an important condition for the good health of all of us . Let's think about integrating eco-responsible products into our daily lives.