How Your Face Wash Is Hurting the Environment
People are always looking for a new way to get perfect skin. A healthy, blemish-free complexion is highly coveted, and one of the essential tools in the fight for perfect skin is the daily morning face scrub. But while your beloved exfoliants may provide you with perfect skin, it turns out they’re wreaking havoc on the environment.
Environmentalists are picketing to ban the plastic microbeads that appear in facial and body shower scrubs across the country. This might sound like a strange topic to take issue with, but science backs up their concerns: those tiny beads can have an enormous impact on the environment.
For those of you not well versed in your skincare products, here’s a quick rundown on what microbeads exactly are and why they’re causing so much trouble. Basically, the name says it all: microbeads are tiny pieces of plastic used to scrub away dead skin and toxins and give your skin that clean, fresh feeling. Unfortunately, microbeads have a darker side; because they’re so tiny they can pass through most water filtration systems with ease. Their makeup means that the microbeads can soak up dangerous toxins, and if they are eaten by unsuspecting wildlife (particularly fish that humans themselves then consume), the consequences could be disastrous for the environment.
“Plastic can absorb and concentrate pollutants, and easily transfer them to aquatic organisms,” assistant professor of Chemistry at University of Wisconsin Superior Dr. Lorena Rios Mendoza told The Atlantic. “Some of these pollutants are endocrine disruptors.” Translation: these tiny beads could damage the reproductive cycles of animals unlucky enough to ingest the plastic and the entire food chain could suffer as a result.
With all these concerns weighing heavily, it’s no surprise that the state of Illinois has opted to ban microbeads. Companies have to stop manufacturing them by the end of 2018, and Illinois will forbid selling the product by the end of 2019.
“Banning microbeads will help ensure clean waters across Illinois and set an example for our nation to follow,” Illinois Governor Pat Quinn said in a statement regarding the new law. “Lake Michigan and the many rivers and lakes across our state are among our most important national resources.”
And Illinois isn’t alone in its anti-microbead stance. New York, California, and Ohio are all working on legislation to restrict or ban microbeads. Minnesota is preparing to conduct an exhaustive study on the subject to determine just how serious and far-reaching the impact of microbeads on the environment actually is. Some of this legislation could be enacted as soon as 2016. But scientists worry that laws expected to go into effect in 2018 and 2019 might be too late to mitigate the damage done to the environment.
“The later date means more microbeads are going down the drain before we’re really taking the measures that need to be taken,” chemist and professor Sherri Mason told CBC news. Still, nobody can argue that these steps are a definite move in the right direction when it comes to protecting the environment. All this drama surrounding something as miniscule as microbeads does prove one fact beyond a doubt: Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact.
[Pic via Flickr - Julia P]
