Will it wash?

Thank-you Bablefish (http://world.altavista.com/tr) for this from Serge Lepeltier, France's ecology and sustainable development minister speaking in Paris yesterday:

Finally beyond of these territorial actions, it is also necessary that strong decisions are made on certain pollutants at the national level.

Thus, after having to carry out a broad dialogue with the industrialists of the detergents, I can announce to you today that the phosphates will be definitively withdrawn from the domestic detergents as from July 1, 2007. We go thus beyond the European regulation.

Why 2007 and not immediately could you ask me?

This 2 years deadline is necessary so that the industrialists can adapt their means of production. They are indeed large units and the industrial investment is important. It is thus necessary to leave a little time.

We might also ask why France is acting on a whim and banning phosphates from a source that according to the Centre European d'Etudes des Polyphosphates contributes about 3-10% of total phosphorus loads to surface water. Will it make much difference when there is no talk of animal waste, soil erosion and animal manures, which pump many tonnes more phosphate into surface water.