The California State Assembly voted Friday in support of a tough ban on the grainy particles found in soaps and other personal care products.
by Hannah Moore
May 26, 2015—California state law could soon get tough on exfoliants. A bill proposing a statewide ban of microbeads passed Friday in the State Assembly and is now headed to the Senate, reported Al Jazeera America.
The legislation, AB-888, passed in a 58-11 vote. It was first sponsored last year by the 5 Gyres Institute, a Los Angeles based environmental organization that is dedicated to public engagement in policy and other solutions to plastic pollution. The bill is the strictest protection in the nation against the use of unnecessary additives and toxins.
Environmentalists say that microbeads are usually smaller than 1 millimeter in diameter and produce about 38 million tons of plastic pollution annually, which ends up in rivers and oceans through wastewater treatment plants. They are often used in personal care products such as facial scrubs, soaps and toothpaste, according to EcoWatch.
Scientists estimate that one jar of facial cleanser contains 300,000 microbeads and that 471 million plastic microbeads go into the San Francisco Bay daily, according to Californians Against Waste, a non-profit supporting the ban.
They also pose a threat to marine life safety. Plastic microbeads have been found inside fish stomachs, according to studies cited by the group. Sea creatures can ingest the beads, thinking they are eggs, and end up ingesting the toxins such as DDT, PCBs (flame retardants) and other industrial chemicals in the microbeads. The toxins can permeate into the fish tissue as well. When humans eat these fish that ingested the beads, the toxins make their way up the food chain.
The scientific community is also concerned about the effects on crabs and shellfish that humans eat.
Microbeads can be found in ocean debris piles, the Great Lakes and were uncovered in the Los Angeles River last year.
The small size of the beads is the biggest problem with them. Microbeads used as exfoliants are usually too small to recover from wastewater treatment plants. They go down the drain or into the environment through sewage overflow.
Photo by gentlemmanrook / CC
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