Cosmetic Microbeads

Banned in the USA but a Threat Worldwide

I'm cross-posting here from my Cosmetic Chemistry Blog on Medium to raise awareness about the serious threat to the environment posed by cosmetic microbeads.

In the case of cosmetic microbeads, they were banned in the United States by the Microbeads Free Waters Action (MFWA) of 2015, signed into law by President Obama.

The law's definition of a plastic microbead is “any solid plastic particle that is less than five millimeters in size and is intended to be used to exfoliate or cleanse the human body or any part thereof.” The MFWA only bans cosmetic plastic microbeads, which is a small portion of microbeads compared to microbeads found in other products. Because of their small stature, they often are able to slip through filtration at wastewater treatments, making their way into marine environments.

Sarah Ketterman published an informative overview of the problem and the legislative solution in “Ban on Plastic Microbeads in Cosmetics”with the American Bar Association.

Check out Ketterman's article and the story behind my Medium blog here