Biodegradation is BUT ONE way paper chemicals are degraded in nature.

Why should biodegradability be given such importance when there are many ways that paper chemicals are degraded, naturally, in the environment. It is worth reading a blog that came out today (see Testing Your Rotten Organics). It reviews a recent publication by Victor de Lorenzo et al. at the National Biotechnology Centre in Madrid, Spain, who use a database of all known microbial metabolic reactions to train a computer algorithm 'to distinguish between the biodegradable from the recalcitrant compounds. With this in silico test kit they looked at almost 10000 chemicals. on a predictive approach to assessing biodegradability which could help researchers evaluate the potential of new compounds to pollute the environment and help in the implementation of international regulations on the use of new chemicals.' Great, but it is pointed out very clearly that, 'Biodegradation is only one route by which thousands of compounds are destroyed naturally in the environment (heat, light and interaction with other non-living materials, are others). The predictive system will be useful, certainly, but its wider applicability should consider these other routes and the risk factors and toxicity associated with any particular chemical, rather than tarnishing all entries in the database simply on the basis of whether or not a microbial enzyme exists to digest it.