Maybe we should have some kind of government agency that figures out things like this before they go on the market?
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Your face wash might be giving you freshly exfoliated skin, but it also could be harming the Great Lakes.
Tiny plastic particles have been proliferating in the massive fresh water system, worrying researchers who fear they could be harming the environment and entering the food chain.
Having already found the “microplastics” in Lakes Erie, Huron and Superior, and recently Lake Ontario, a team will set sail on Lake Michigan next month to search for the tiny bits.
The minuscule beads are not floating en masse in the lakes, but they are captured when researchers drag special nets that also nab other small plants, fish and particles.
Sherri Mason, the team’s principal investigator, said “microbeads” in consumer products such as face wash, toothpaste and mouth wash are a “significant contributor.”
The microbeads are added by manufacturers to produce a scrubbing or exfoliating effect in personal hygiene products, Mason said.
“They’re so small that they make their way directly into the wastewater treatment process, and into the oceans and lakes,” said Mason, a professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, which sits near Lake Erie.
Everything we do will hurt the enviornment. But that doesn’t mean that we have to destroy our ecosystem in the process. Burning carbon based fuels negatively impacts multiple eco-systems.