Environmental specimen bank of the Federal Republic of Germany - significance of surfactants

Abstract

The German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) of the Federal Government was established in 1985 with the purpose of storing representative samples from the terrestrial and aquatic environment as well as from human beings for future decades without any change in chemical composition. The ESB has already obtained promising results which demonstrate the effectivity of legislative efforts with respect to environmental protection. Surfactants play an important role in pollution studies because they can influence the immobilization or remobilization of pollutants in soils or sediments.