Explanation of terminology: surfactants are a broad class of organic chemicals that are key components of all detergents, liquid soaps, washing liquids, and shampoos, and therefore they pollute water in huge quantities; 'Mytilus edulis' is the scientific Latin name for a common species of marine mollusks...
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Explanation of terminology: surfactants are a broad class of organic chemicals that are key components of all detergents, liquid soaps, washing liquids, and shampoos, and therefore they pollute water in huge quantities; 'Mytilus edulis' is the scientific Latin name for a common species of marine mollusks (mussels) that are one of most popular seafood. Discovery: surfactants ( SDS, Triton X-100,) inhibit water filtration by marine mussels Mytilus edulis. This is a very important new fact reported in this innovative, pioneering publication. This new experimental result of the international research team (U.K., Plymouth Marine Laboratory; Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Federation) is of key importance. This new fact became the start for the series of excellent publications by the leader of this research project, Fulbright award winner, Dr. Sergei A. Ostroumov. This series of excellent articles and books confirmed the main result of this paper.
The importance of this result is huge. This fact (which ws discovered in this paper and was confirmed in many other publications by Dr. S.A. Ostroumov) leads to three relevant conclusions.
(1) Synthetic surfactants and detergents pose more environmental hazards than it was thought before.
(2) Sublethal concentrations of chemical pollutants (sublethal = less than lethal, less than killing concentrations) pose more environmental hazard than it was thought before.
(3) Chemical pollutants (such as surfactants, detergents) may decrease the very important function of aquatic ecosystems: namely, the pollutants may decrease the process of water purification by living organisms in the water.
All of these three conclusions are vital and essential to progress in ecology, environmental science, water science, aquatic toxicology, ecotoxicology.
All of the three conclusions are very useful to make new steps in protection of the environment, in nature conservation, in protection of biodiversity, in protection of water resources.
The abbreviation used: SDS is sodium dodecyl sulphate (sodium dodecyl sulfate). It is an anionic surfactant used in many cleaning and hygiene products.
