Phosphorus Removes White Film

The government started recommending a reduction in phosphorus in detergent back in the '70's and many dish washing detergent companies lowered the amount of phosphorus in their products over the decades since. Same for laundry detergent. Phosphorus runoff causes algae blooms, most common in the Great Lakes. The EPA and various other green groups and individuals dislike algae blooms because it sometimes kills the fish that need the oxygen the algae uses up.

Eventually various State government felt the need to act, but without all the information, and banned phosphorus from various products. The companies that make dish washing and laundry detergent, rather than make different mixtures for different states, simply removed it.

Whammo...white film on your glasses and gritty sand like particulates. Phosphorus is what prevents that from happening.

Unfortunately, it was easier to target the consumer than farmers and industries that leach phosphorus into the runoff all the time. Phosphorous is a major component of most fertilizers. So while they are spreading it on the ground by the ton, the government went after us by the spoonful.

Alternatively, municipal water treatment systems could have been retrofitted to remove phosphorous just like they remove a host of other chemicals we don't like to go into the water but again, it's just easier for the government and pressure groups to ban something than to think about alternate solutions.

As far as a solution, go buy a box of trisodium phosphate from Home Depot and add some to your detergents.