Fate Processes

Whether a consumer product ingredient is found in the sewer, a wastewater treatment plant, river water or soil, the same treatment, or fate, processes act on these compounds to reduce their concentration in the environment. These four major treatment processes are biodegradation

, volatilization

, sorption

and dilution.

All of these fate processes act together to reduce the concentration of consumer product ingredients in the environment. We work to understand these processes to improve our ability to:

Better understand the environment,
Design environmentally friendly compounds, and
Better predict the concentration of our ingredients in the environment.

Our efforts to understand what happens to our materials in the environment starts with prediction of biodegradation, volatilisation and sorption using a Quantitative Structure Property Relationship (QSPR). These predicted values are used in computer fate models to predict the concentration of our ingredients in surface waters and soils around the world. For those compounds for which QSPRs do not provide good estimates of fate processes, we conduct a series of laboratory tests. The results of these tests are then used with the fate models to predict environmental concentrations.

To make sure that P&G' s ingredients do not affect crops or organisms living in soil, we use fate models to predict concentrations in sludge. The key is to understand if concentrations are below levels causing adverse effects to these species. The process we use to compare fate and effects is called environmental risk assessment.