§ Mr. Geoffrey Lloydasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will make arrangements for the testing of detergents containing linear alkyl sulphonate for possible toxic effects on fish.
§ Mr. MacCollNo. Research has already been carried out by the Water Pollution Research Laboratory on the toxic effect of detergents on fish, and similar work has been done in the United States. While there is some evidence that the new softer detergents, containing linear alkyl sulphonate, are slightly more toxic to fish than the hard detergents which they are replacing, the use of the softer detergents is likely on the whole to benefit fish life because they decompose more readily and the concentration of detergent in rivers is therefore reduced.