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If you have exfoliating shower gel, face wash, or toothpaste, this may be your last container of it.
All of these products, and more, contain microbeads. These are defined in the new bill as “any solid plastic particle that is less than 5 millimeters and is used for the purpose of exfoliating or cleansing.”
Now, President Obama has signed a bill that makes it illegal to sell or distribute products containing these beads. It’s a bill meant to protect the nation’s waterways, which many environmentalists believe are being threatened by the expansive use of microbeads.
If you’re at a loss as to what microbeads are and what they do, here’s some information about them.
These microbeads are in hundreds of cleansing products in the US. They’re designed to wash down drains, but after that, they become an environmental threat. Because they’re plastic, they don’t dissolve.
They’ve been polluting the planets oceans and lakes more and more. One study published by Environmental Science and Technology wrote that 8 trillion microbeads enter aquatic habitats.
They’re hard to clean up, too, due to their size. They’re about the size of a pinhead, making them virtually impossible to collect. They’re also a threat to marine animals and other aquatic organisms. Marine life will often mistake them for food. If fish ingest them, this becomes a problem for humans. Humans can ingest the chemicals, and even the microbeads themselves, if the seafood they’re eating has ingested them, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
So if you were really attached to your exfoliating face wash, make the most of the one you have. And there’s no need to worry about it too much—salt, sugar, and other national exfoliators will work just as well.
