Surfactants are widely used in household cleaning detergents, personal care products, textiles, paints, polymers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, mining, oil recovery and paper industries. The world production of synthetic surfactants is about 13 million tonnes annually. Because of their widespread use, surfactants can be potential toxins when large quantities enter environment. Surfactants mainly enter the environment via wastewaters, as such aquatic toxicity and aquatic behaviour of surfactants are important parameters.

Main Researcher: Siti Afida Ishak