A study by the Water Technology Center in Karlsruhe, Germany, found that a number of commonly used artificial sweeteners are present in German waste and surface water. The new analytical method of extracting and analyzing many chemicals simultaneously demonstrated that sewage treatment plants fail to remove artificial sweeteners and other chemicals from water supplies.

The sweeteners were found in waters downstream of the treatment plants where scientists Marco Scheurer, Heinz-Jürgen Brauch and Frank Thomas Lange collected water samples. Their findings were published online this week in Springer’s journal " Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry."

Through the use of this new method, the researchers were able to look for seven different artificial sweeteners – cyclamate, acesulfame, saccharin, aspartame, neotame, neohesperidin dihydrochalcone and sucralose – simultaneously. Until now, only sucralose has been detected in aquatic environments.

Read a full report here from the Environment News Service (ENS) >>