Microbeads In Our Waters

You’ve probably heard of these dastardly microbeads by now: The tiny pieces of plastic, billed as miraculous exfoliators in facial wash and whitening scrubbers in toothpaste, are basically impossible to get rid of. They’re too small for waste water processing plants to filter out, so they’re ending up in the sea -- building up in the water and posing risks to marine life and water quality.

In recent years, researchers have reported finding the microbeads in the Great Lakes. Further research has found them in the Saint Lawrence River, which connects those lakes with the Atlantic Ocean and flows from eastern Canada to the midwestern US.

Previous research pulled the microbeads from the water itself, but in a study published recently in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, researchers went digging in the dirt.

The researchers only looked at the microbeads on the slightly larger end of the spectrum, so they suspect that smaller ones may have gone uncounted. This is worst in areas of slow river flow, where solids like these beads aren’t being moved quickly enough to stay buoyant. In slow water, they sink -- and build up -- until the sediment is heavily polluted.

Now, these researchers will dissect fish that live on the polluted riverbed to see if they’ve been eating the plastic particles. If the microbead build-up is getting into the fish food chain, it could be endangering their health.

In the meantime, look for toothpaste without any beads in it (dentists say they’re useless, anyway) and make sure your exfoliating scrubs use particles that are safe and biodegradable.

New York State announced a new pamphlet released at helping consumers choose personal care products that do not contain microbeads, a known form of plastic pollution. Titled “Microbeads Megaproblem: Keep Your Home Free of Plastic Microbeads,” the pamphlet offers information for New York consumers on how to identify and avoid personal care products that contain microbeads that are less than five millimeters in size and commonly slip through water treatment plants, entering New York’s waterways.The pamphlet is being issued as a guide to consumers while the Attorney General’s Microbead-Free Waters Act (S3932-2015) awaits passage by the New York State Legislature. If passed and signed into law, the legislation would prohibit the distribution and sale of personal cosmetic products containing microbeads in New York. The state Assembly passed the bill in April, and the bill is currently co-sponsored by 34 State Senators, which is more than the number of votes needed for passage.

Microbeads are tiny pieces of plastic that are added to over one hundred personal care products sold in the United States, including face scrubs and toothpastes. The Attorney General’s pamphlet offers three easy steps to help fight microbead pollution by choosing not to wash your face and brush your teeth with plastic.

Check the ingredient list of person care products you have at home or plan to buy. The most common type of plastic microbead will listed on the ingredient list as “polyethylene.” Other products may include “polypropylene.” 

Check your product against a list of products containing microbeads: The Beat the Microbead campaign has developed lists of products that contain microbeads.

Download the Beat the Microbead App: You can download an App to scan the barcode of any personal care product with your smartphone camera and check to see if it contains microbeads before purchase.

Beat the Microbead consumer tools, including the list and the App, can be found at: http://www.beatthemicrobead.org.