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<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Nature </span></i><b><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>525, </span></b><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>425<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>(24 September
2015)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>doi: 10.1038/525425a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.nature.com/news/in-the-name-of-beauty-1.18398?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20150924&spMailingID=49614214&spUserID=MjA1NTE2ODQxMAS2&spJobID=763182077&spReportId=NzYzMTgyMDc3S0">http://www.nature.com/news/in-the-name-of-beauty-1.18398?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20150924&spMailingID=49614214&spUserID=MjA1NTE2ODQxMAS2&spJobID=763182077&spReportId=NzYzMTgyMDc3S0</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
ugly truth is that the plastic microbeads found in many skin scrubs and other
personal-care products are a serious pollutant of the marine environment. They
should be phased out rapidly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#222222;letter-spacing:-.4pt'>In the name of beauty<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>22
September 2015<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A beautiful
woman comes into focus. What makes her skin glow so? Why, she says, she uses
Aveeno’s Positively Radiant skin-brightening daily scrub for
“naturally beautiful results”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>What is not
clear from this advertisement is that the “gentle exfoliators” in
the product promoted by Jennifer Aniston are minuscule beads of plastic. When Aniston,
or those she inspires to follow her, rinse the scrub down the drain, many of
the beads end up in the sea, where they will persist indefinitely. This is
unnecessary, damaging and must stop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Others agree,
and the face scrub, along with hundreds of other products, including
toothpastes, may not be long for this world. On 10 September, the
California Legislature sent a bill (AB 888) to the state’s governor,
Jerry Brown, that would ban the inclusion of spheres of polyethylene, polypropylene
and other plastics less than 5 millimetres across in personal-care products
after 2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>If signed into
law, the bill will prevent trillions of plastic beads from being rinsed down
the drain. Not all of these make it to the sea — waste-water treatment
plants can sift out 90% of them — but the problems caused by the
remaining millions are considerable. (Meanwhile, beads trapped in
‘sludge’ at the plants do not disappear. Plenty are sprayed on
crops, from where they escape to rivers and lakes.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In a paper
published on 3 September, aquatic-health researcher Chelsea Rochman at the
University of California, Davis, and her colleagues estimate that
8 trillion microbeads per day are emitted into aquatic habitats in
the United States alone (<a href="http://doi.org/7sw"><span style='color:#5C7996'>C.
M. Rochman</span><span class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;
text-decoration:none'> </span></span><i><span style='color:#5C7996'>et al.</span></i><span
class=apple-converted-space><i><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></i></span><i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>Environ. Sci. Technol.</span></i><span style='color:#5C7996'>http://doi.org/7sw;
2015</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The beads are
more pernicious than mere litter. Roughly the size of many plankton species,
they are eaten by marine creatures. One study in 2014 saw them consumed by
several taxa of zooplankton, including mysid shrimps, copepods, rotifers and
ciliates (<a href="http://doi.org/7s2"><span style='color:#5C7996'>O. Setälä</span><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></span><i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>et al.</span></i><span class=apple-converted-space><i><span
style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></i></span><i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>Environ. Pollut.</span></i><b><span style='color:#5C7996'>185,</span></b><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></span><span
style='color:#5C7996'>77–83; 2014</span></a>). Some of these are then
eaten by larger creatures, and toxic chemicals in the plastics, as well as
other toxic chemicals that adhere to plastic particles, accumulate in
fish — which might end up on our dinner tables.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:#ECECEC'><b><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“No luminous complexion is worth
the wholesale pollution of Earth’s oceans.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>California
would not be the first place to pass a microbead ban, but as the world’s
seventh- or eighth-largest economy, its move would carry weight. Just as in
automotive-fuel efficiency standards or flammability requirements on furniture,
where California goes, other places in the United States and elsewhere follow.
The California bill is also stronger than many before it. It does not include a
common loophole allowing for the use of ‘biodegradable’ beads
— which are unlikely to truly degrade anywhere except in an industrial
composter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>California
legislators have made the right call, but the phase-out period is too long. No
luminous complexion is worth the wholesale pollution of Earth’s oceans.
Consumer-goods giant Unilever says that it has already removed microbeads from
all of its scrubs and washes. And there are plenty of well-tested alternative
exfoliants, including nut shells, sand and sugar. So why wait five years to
stop polluting?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>While bans and
phase-outs slowly take effect, the Beat the Microbead campaign, funded by Dutch
non-governmental organizations the Plastic Soup Foundation and the North Sea
Foundation, has created an app for consumers who want to avoid contributing to
the problem. A few clicks can confirm whether the tempting scrub in the
pharmacy aisle contains the beads. This is helpful in the short term, but
ultimately the onus of responsibility should not be on the consumer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Microbeads are
not the only source of microplastic in the oceans. Tiny plastic pellets used in
making plastic items spill into the sea; plastic bags and bottles break down
over time. On almost any beach on Earth, the sand carries tiny, bright grains
of plastic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>And
macroplastics remain a serious problem. A study published last month estimated
that around 90% of seabirds have plastic in their bellies (<a
href="http://doi.org/7dv"><span style='color:#5C7996'>C. Wilcox</span><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></span><i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>et al.</span></i><span class=apple-converted-space><i><span
style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></i></span><i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA</span></i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>http://doi.org/7dv; 2015</span></a>). Some birds mistake
shopping bags for jellyfish; others confuse cigarette lighters and pen caps
with prey and fly home to feed them to their chicks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
consequences of this ubiquitous plastic for marine species, marine ecosystems
and human health remain areas of active research. But the public and
policymakers need not wait for detailed results before taking action. Banning
microbeads will not solve the plastic-pollution problem, but it is an easy
start. Jennifer Aniston and the millions of other people who wash their faces
with plastic can still look radiant without feeding their skincare regime to
copepods. The alternative is to forever blush with shame.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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