Environmental, laundry workers and fishermen’s groups Tuesday asked for a federal ban on widely used chemicals in cleaners – saying that when they slip into streams, the compounds feminize male fish and may threaten human health.
Nonylphenols – synthetic chemicals found in many household cleaners and industrial detergents – mimic the hormone estrogen, said Ed Hopkins, director of the Sierra Club’s environmental quality program.
Scientists have found nonylphenols and related compounds in natural waterways below Denver’s and Boulder’s wastewater treatment plants.
In both places, they’ve also found sucker fish with both male and female organs and other sexual deformities.
“When we find these kinds of responses in the aquatic environment, it’s not a good sign for people, and we need to be very cautious,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins estimated that U.S. companies produce more than 200 million pounds of nonylphenols every year.
With two other environmental groups, unionized laundry workers and a Pacific Coast fisherman’s group, the Sierra Club asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to:
Ban nonylphenols in commercial and industrial detergents
Study the chemicals’ effects on people, especially workers exposed to significant quantities
Require the labeling of products containing nonylphenols
The agency has 90 days to respond to the petition – and can either deny it or begin developing new rules, EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said.
The EPA has a voluntary program to encourage companies to develop alternatives to nonylphenols.
Jones also said her agency is doing research on endocrine disrupters – a class of chemicals that includes nonylphenols.
With about $800,000 in EPA support, University of Colorado endocrinologist David Norris and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey have been tracking endocrine disrupters in Boulder Creek.
While nonylphenols are present in Boulder Creek, Norris said, they’re outnumbered by natural estrogen compounds and those from birth-control pills – both excreted by people.
Still, Norris said he hoped the EPA would regulate nonylphenols, which are already tightly restricted in Europe and Canada.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
