Last summer, AET commissioned an assessment of the ecological effects of chlorine dioxide bleaching. The report, written by a panel of some of the world's foremost scientists in the field, was the first of its kind to follow the US Environmental Protection Agency's Framework for Risk Assessment. The authors reached a unanimous opinion. In short, the public should not have to worry about the risks to human health and to the environment from chlorine dioxide. These dramatic findings result from the way chlorine dioxide reacts with organic material such as lignin, the tissue that hold a plant's cellular wall together, and which is eliminated during bleaching.
Chlorine gas reacts with lignin to create certain compounds that can be potentially harmful.
Chlorine dioxide, on the other hand, breaks these compounds apart. As the rate of chlorine dioxide use approaches 100 percent, the formation of these potentially harmful substances falls to zero. There are, of course, alternatives to chlorine dioxide, which some companies and environmentalists actively promote. But virtually nothing is known about their environmental and human health effects. The ecosystem is a complex and intricate set of relationships, and responds to changes in ways we do not always understand.