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Fatty alcohols are mainly used in the production of detergents and surfactants. They are also components of cosmetics, foods and as industrial solvents. The 2008 edition originated from a multi-year review of the occurrence, behaviour and use of fatty alcohols to inform the registration of such chemicals through the REACH process in the EU. This review highlighted areas requiring further research. In this expanded edition, new information regarding products containing fatty alcohol derivatives, the fate of these down-the-drain products in wastewater systems and the use of compound specific stable isotope methods has been published. This work has been amalgamated with a number of aspects relating to the inclusion of these compounds in the EU bio-based economy drive. Significant advances have been made since the first edition. No other book brings together all the disparate information regarding this group of chemicals that are of great interest to environmental scientist (as biomarkers), industry (as surfactants) and to regulators.

While environmental catastrophes can be naturally occurring, often they are the result of criminal intent or malfeasance. Sorting out the details when the land itself is the only witness requires a special set of investigative skills. For accountability to be established, investigators must be able to answer these questions with a measure of scient

Fatty alcohols occur naturally in most organisms and can also be used in consumer products including detergents and cosmetics and all of these materials make their way to the sea eventually. These long chain alcohols can be used as biomarkers due to their distinctive source allocations although they have differential degradation rates across the range of chain lengths. Concern has been raised about their inputs from anthropogenic uses and this book seeks to set out the natural and industrial synthetic pathways, sources, signatures, concentrations in the environment, toxicity and eco-toxicity before summarising their impact. Their large scale synthesis for industrial uses puts them in the'High Production Volume'category and they will need to be addressed in REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) - a new European legislation for chemicals and substances. There is no other book that considers the fatty alcohols from their production, environmental behaviour and potential toxicity viewpoint. The book, which is also well illustrated, presents for the first time environmental data from many locations around the world and discusses the anthropogenic contributions to these places.