Exfoliating soaps, toothpastes, body washes and similar other products that use microbeads may help keep your teeth and skin clean, but they can be harmful.
The tiny pieces of plastic may appear harmless, but the threat they pose to the environment and the food chain was deemed concerning enough that last year, the United States passed a law that bans products containing microbeads.
The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, which President Barack Obama signed in December 2015, will restrict production of cosmetic products that contain plastic microbeads in 2017.
The tiny pieces of plastic do not dissolve. They are also very small that they do not get filtered by wastewater treatment plants, so they enter bodies of water such as lakes, rivers and oceans, where they can be mistaken as food by marine animals such as turtles and fishes.
Aquatic animals that feed on these plastic pieces may suffer from health problems, stop eating or even die of starvation when the microbeads get lodged in their stomach or intestines. The presence of microbeads in these animals' body can also impact the food chain.
A 2013 study also found that harmful pollutants such as DDT also stick to the beads when they pass through pipes.
Phasing out beads in cosmetic products that are used in the United States may help reduce microbead pollution, but this is not enough since the use of products containing microbeads in other parts of the globe continues to pose threats to the environment.
Members of Britain's Parliament want to do something about this, so they call not just for a national ban on products that contain microbeads, but they are also calling for a worldwide ban.
"Trillions of tiny pieces of plastic are accumulating in the world's oceans, lakes and estuaries, harming marine life and entering the food chain," said Environmental Audit Committee chairwoman Mary Creagh. "A single shower can result in 100,000 plastic particles entering the ocean."
Creagh said that the voluntary approach by cosmetic companies to phase out microbeads would not be enough as she calls for a full legal ban of the plastic.
Greenpeace is among the environmental organizations that welcomed the development.
"It seems like everyone is now in agreement with what seems really obvious — adding tiny bits of plastic to products that go straight down the drain, past sewage filtration systems and out to our rivers and seas to be eaten by wildlife is not such a good idea," the organization said in a statement.
