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California Votes To Ban Microbeads
New submitter Kristine Lofgren writes: The California Assembly just passed a vote to ban toxic microbeads, the tiny flecks found in toothpastes and exfoliants. Microbeads cause a range of problems, from clogging waterways to getting stuck in gums. The ban would be the strictest of its kind in the nation. As the article notes, the California Senate would need to pass a bill as well, for this ban to take effect, and if that happens, the resulting prohibition will come into place in 2020. From the article: Last year, Illinois became the first state in the U.S. to pass a ban on the usage of microbeads in cosmetics, approving a law that will go into effect in 2018, and earlier this year two congressmen introduced a bipartisan bill to outlaw the use of microbeads nationwide. And for exceptionally good reason; the beads, which serve as exfoliants and colorants are a massive source of water pollution, with scientists estimating that 471 million plastic microbeads are released into San Francisco Bay alone every single day.
I've read up on this a bit, and it seems that micro beads end up being ingested by a lot of aquatic life, and cause health problems. Along with that, the heaver ones sink and carpet areas of aquatic floor, and smother out aquatic plant life. the rest probably end up in the giant Atlantic/Pacific garbage patches, which we don't need to make bigger.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
depends on the type of plastic and whether or not a given plastic can be digested by microorganisms.
Microbeads are mostly made out of PE for example which isn't readily biodegradable under many circumstances. However, there are some species of bacteria that can digest it.
The issue is less the beads than what they're made out of and what sort of treatment the water goes through
If the sewage treatment process is letting microbeads in any great quantity into the rivers or ocean then I have to ask what else are we releasing? Because PE has a LOWER density than water, it should float on the surface. Which means in a settling tank, it should get skimmed off the surface. If it isn't getting skimmed off the surface, then what else aren't we skimming off the surface?
If your water treatment system is anything short of a complete joke... how are microbeads even getting through the system at all?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
That's why I eat only organisms without a digestive tract.
A medical centrifuge accelerates this process dramatically....
really? how long will it take you to filter sewage with a medical centrifuge?
And if not, then we need to look at other means of processing the water. Possibly some sort of industrial centrifuge would be a good idea?
Why why why does every single municipal sewage treatment plant on the entire planet need a massive upgrade because there are people out there who cannot stand the concept of having dead skin cells on their faces?
you shouldn't even need microbeads for facial skin exfoliation, acid masks are $15 for a bottle that lasts for like, a year. the acid dissolves the glue holding the dead layer of skin on, and then it slowly falls off. No exfoliation needed, just 5-10 minutes of applying the mask then rinse off.*
*I am a man. I looked into this as a means of regrowing/replacing skin that was damaged from acne when I was much much younger, so young in fact that I came up with my silly username
Although the beads aren't toxic, they can and do adsorb hydrophilic pollutants such as PCBs and other oily pollutants such as dioxins. Normally these chemicals settle out into the lake/river bottoms (or evaporate from the surface), but when they attach to microbeads, which being small and similar density to water, they can stay dispersed in the water. Small creatures eat the beads and the PCBs or whatever enter the animals flesh through the gut, and it is supposed that predatory fish at the top of the food chain will have higher levels of the pollutants due to bioamplification in the same fashion that mercury is found in higher levels in top of the food chain oceanic predatory fish.
PCBs and dioxins in the food are bad news for humans in even very tiny quantities.
However, although they are finding and counting the beads in fish, I have not seen anyone doing measurements of captured fish to see to what degree fish are capturing pollutants.
OTOH, it doesn't make sense to wait until things get really bad to decide to solve the problem. Once these beads get into lakes and rivers, there's no way to get them out.