...for instance are particularly problematic, notably nonylphenol, a "degreaser" used by the dangerous car CULTure and many other processes. This compound is a known powerful estrogen mimetic, and has been implicated in many disease states, notably breast and ovarian cancer - although the carcinogenicity has
not been definitively established.
I'm not so sure that alkyl sulfonates are so great, and the problems with what alkyl sulfonates replaced, alkyl phosphonates, are well known.
These sort of issues, by the way, are poster children for what is
wrong with the libertarian "distributed energy" approach, which involves
point source pollutants, with the "replacement" proving as bad, and in some cases
worse than the original problem.
One may argue, for instance, that the
problem with CFC's - a
serious problem - had to do with its
relatively short atmospheric half-life, which involved chlorine intermediates in the stratosphere. But the
replacement HFC's is problematic precisely because their half-lives are
long.
This will be obviated if solar PV energy, for instance, finds itself in the position of producing as much as 1% of humanity's energy needs, something I personally don't anticipate happening, but may happen because of the
force of ignorance.
For water treatment, I personally favor ozone - not without problems - and radiolysis.
Interestingly radiolysis has
recently been investigated for palliating nonylphenol pollution:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TVT-4GMJ917-1&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2006&_alid=1285824398&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=5543&_sort=r&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=85&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=17569f66d0c3d1cdfff6d189c5f3600a">Radiation Physics and Chemistry 75 (2006) 61–69
Regrettably, the utility of radiolysis in water treatment - and let's be clear that treatment is
not perfect, but it is vastly superior to
not treating water - from doing what it might to help fight humanity's big problem with degraded water supplies is ignorance and stupidity.