The content of phosphor in detergents produced by the factories in northeast China's Liaoning Province has plunged since the province imposed a ban on the sale and use of phosphoric detergents on July 1, 2001.
According to the latest survey, 94 percent of detergents sold in local shops do not contain phosphor.
Local people annually use 100,000 tons of detergent, such as washing powder, and the ban has led to a 1,500-ton decrease in phosphoric discharge into the sea.
Random disposal of phosphoric products has resulted in severe pollution of water. Red tides in the nearby Bohai Sea had brought a total of 250 million yuan (about 30 million US dollars) in financial losses to the local fishing industry from 1990 to 1998.
Liaoning is the second province in China, after east China's Shandong province, to impose the phosphor ban.
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2002)
