The consortium is concerned about what happens to the fragrances in their household products after they are poured down the drain. In particular, they want to know what happens to the fragrances when they are spread on farmers fields in sludge from sewage treatment plants. They want to make sure these things don t become a problem, said Standley. The assumption was that they were harmless. Standley explained that the fragrances are organic chemicals, many of which originate from plants.
Vanilla is one example.
The scientists make a distinction between fragrances and perfumes. The latter, Standley said, are made up of many components to produce a unique smell - and are usually expensive. Fragrances are simpler, manufactured in bulk and produced as cheaply as possible to make products more appealing to consumers. Standley s fellow team members from the University of Delaware are environmental engineering academics, Herb Allen, Pei Chiu and Dan Cha, and graduate student Angela DiFrancesco. They do most of the fieldwork, and the Stroud Center does most of the laboratory analysis.