UN Calls For Microbead Ban

A United Nations agency is calling for personal product and cosmetic makers to globally phase out the plastic microbeads used in some toothpastes, shower gels, deodorants, eye shadows, nail polishes, and other items. When washed off people’s bodies and down drains, the tiny spheres, which are less than 1 mm in diameter and sometimes nanometer-sized, aren’t removed by sewage treatment plants and end up in oceans or lakes, the UN Environment Programme points out in a report. It cites concerns that the tiny plastic spheres can facilitate the movement of toxic pollutants from oceans and other water bodies to fish that people eat. These microplastics, which can take centuries to break down, can also harm aquatic animals who mistake the tiny particles for food. The report, issued last week, also warns against the use of beads made of biodegradable polylactic acid plastic as a substitute for widely used polyethylene microspheres. Biobased polylactic acid polymers, it says, “only degrade when subjected to high temperatures in industrial settings.”