Gree(n)tings everyone!!!
I hope you and yours are doing well. I've been busy preparing for nationals in 3 weeks! It's finally July, Miss Earth United States month! In today's edition of My Green Maryland, I'll be talking about what microbeads are, their use on toothpaste and personal care products, and its environmental effects on marine life. Microbeads are tiny pieces of plastic, often less than a millimeter wide, usually made of polyethylene. They primarily serve as exfoliants in face washes and body scrubs, but also add color and texture to toothpastes, lip balms, moisturizing creams, and makeup. A single tube of face wash can contain more than 300,000 of the plastic beads, which are cheaper than other common natural exfoliants like apricot seeds, coconut husks, or diatomaceous earth.
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| Miss Earth Maryland 2015 Ruby B. Johsnon |
Microbeads are so small that they aren't caught by most water treatment plants, so they wind up in lakes, streams, and oceans. According to a
report by New York's attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman, as many as 19 tons of microbeads could be discharged into the state's waterways each year. Assuming all Americans are dumping microbeads at that rate, 300 tons per year end up in US waterways. The beads, which can resemble fish eggs, are mistaken for food and ingested by fish and other marine animals. The plastic also acts as a sponge for toxins, soaking up pesticides, phthalates, and heavy metals and carrying them through the food chain. Tuna and swordfish are turning up with microbeads in their stomachs.
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| Microbeads |
The movement to ban microbeads has really gathered steam because of concerns about their effects on human health. In March 2014, dental hygienist and blogger Trish Walraven sounded the alarm with an
article about how she was finding "bits of blue plastic in my patients' mouths every single day." The plastic, she wrote, came from Crest toothpaste, and it was getting stuck in patients' gums. Now, dentists are concerned that the microbeads trap bacteria, possibly causing gingivitis. Procter and Gamble, which makes the toothpaste, insists that microbeads are safe, but has pledged to rid Crest products of plastic microbeads by next March. There are other concerns about ingesting microbeads—both from using products like toothpaste and from eating fish containing the plastic bits. The Environmental Working Group notes that the plastics that make up some microbeads are suspected to be hormone disruptors, so "eating them at your fish fry would not only lend an unpleasant texture to your beer-battered fish but could also add an unhealthy dose of estrogen-mimicking chemicals."
To know if your product contains microbeads, look for polyethylene on the list of ingredients; this is the most common type of microbead. Polyethylene isn't the same as polyethylene glycol. Other ingredients to watch out for: polypropylene, poly-e-terephthalate, and polymethyl methacrylate. Below are a few products that are microbead-free. The advocacy organization Beat the Microbead has more extensive
product lists. Facing consumer pressure, several large cosmetics manufacturers have either already removed microbeads from their products or have pledged to phase them out. Johnson & Johnson, which makes Neutrogena, and L'Oréal, which owns Garnier, have pledged to remove the beads by 2017. Unilever phased polyethylene microbeads out of its products, including Dove and Axe soaps, earlier this year.
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| Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland signs HB 216, banning use of microbead products in Maryland |
On May 12, 2015, Governor Larry Hogan signed into law HB 216, banning plastic microbeads as an ingredient in personal care products in Maryland. The law, sponsored by Delegate Dan Morhaim of Baltimore County, requires manufacturers to phase out the use of plastic microbeads in 2018 and bans the sale of products containing them at the end of 2019. These changes effectively require manufacturers to use natural alternatives like oatmeal, apricot stones, salt, and rice. With the agreement of the Personal Care Products Council, Maryland’s ban effectively closes this loophole. The law requires the Maryland Department of the Environment to establish regulations so that alternative exfoliants meet international standards to biodegrade in wastewater treatment plants and the marine environment, and for MDE to review the regulations periodically to ensure the strongest, most relevant standards are in effect.
Similar bans arose in other states in 2014, particularly after researchers found alarmingly high concentrations of microbeads in the Great Lakes. Illinois and New Jersey passed bans last year, but with loopholes for so-called biodegradable plastics like polylactic acid (PLA). Unfortunately PLA only biodegrades at extremely high heat, not in the cool temperatures of the water.
Ruby B. Johnson,
Your Miss Earth Maryland 2015
Continuing the legacy of beauty and responsibility
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