http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-31/plastic-beads-found-in-great-lakes-usa/4856350

Tiny plastic beads commonly found in beauty products are showing up in North America’s Great Lakes, sparking concerns for the health of the world’s largest surface freshwater system.

Scientists have already found the particles floating in the oceans, but a non-profit California-based environmental activist group recently reported the same contamination in lakes Erie, Superior and Huron.

A team of researchers with the 5 Gyres Institute collected samples from the interconnected lakes during the past northern summer and found large quantities of round, plastic pellets – also called “microbeads”, which are often less than a millimetre in diameter.

Microbeads make up the exfoliant component of such products as facial scrubs, body washes and toothpastes, and are designed to wash down a household drain.

(More at link)

Unilever is phasing them out:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/07/health/microplastics-soap-unilever

Divine Angel said:

… and found large quantities of round, plastic pellets

How large is large? One bead per KL? Ten?

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Divine Angel said:

… and found large quantities of round, plastic pellets

How large is large? One bead per KL? Ten?

Doesn’t say.

Furthermore, they may also pose a health risk to humans, the group said.

“We don’t know if the problem stops with the fish or if we eat the fish, the problems are with us now,” said Lorena Rios-Mendoza, a chemist with the University of Wisconsin-Superior who was on the 5 Gyres boat expedition.

“We don’t know if there are any health risks, so there may be health risks.”

I recon they should drain the lakes and refill them with clean water. It’s the only way to be sure.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Furthermore, they may also pose a health risk to humans, the group said.

“We don’t know if the problem stops with the fish or if we eat the fish, the problems are with us now,” said Lorena Rios-Mendoza, a chemist with the University of Wisconsin-Superior who was on the 5 Gyres boat expedition.

“We don’t know if there are any health risks, so there may be health risks.”

I recon they should drain the lakes and refill them with clean water. It’s the only way to be sure.

I’d suggest introducing some form a animal that will consume these plastic balls – problem solvered

I recon they should drain the lakes and refill them with clean water. It’s the only way to be sure.

probably need to scrub them clean as well. would need some small abrasives particles to do a really good job.

ChrispenEvan said:

I recon they should drain the lakes and refill them with clean water. It’s the only way to be sure.

probably need to scrub them clean as well. would need some small abrasives particles to do a really good job.

That’s the thing. Gutting fish would be easy cos the microbeads have already done half the job.

diddly-squat said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Furthermore, they may also pose a health risk to humans, the group said.

“We don’t know if the problem stops with the fish or if we eat the fish, the problems are with us now,” said Lorena Rios-Mendoza, a chemist with the University of Wisconsin-Superior who was on the 5 Gyres boat expedition.

“We don’t know if there are any health risks, so there may be health risks.”

I recon they should drain the lakes and refill them with clean water. It’s the only way to be sure.

I’d suggest introducing some form a animal that will consume these plastic balls – problem solvered

Cane toads?

i guess we can be thankful that they are only microbeads and not nanobeads.

the other option is to filter the water from the sewer to stop this stuff entering the environment.

or just ban it outright for that purpose (face cleaner)

So?

>>the other option is to filter the water from the sewer to stop this stuff entering the environment.

I assume the beads at < 1 mm must be too small for current waste water screens.

If they float they could be skimmed with a baffle/grease trap. Although they probably have these in the system already…

A great example of unforeseen environmental impact from a product. I wonder if a life cycle analysis would have even picked up this issue?

podzol said:

>>the other option is to filter the water from the sewer to stop this stuff entering the environment.

I assume the beads at < 1 mm must be too small for current waste water screens.

If they float they could be skimmed with a baffle/grease trap. Although they probably have these in the system already…

A great example of unforeseen environmental impact from a product. I wonder if a life cycle analysis would have even picked up this issue?

I saw the problem the moment I saw what the beads were made from – I just shook my head and put it back on the shelf

I might contact the companies concerned about this myself – I didn’t think anyone else had made the connection

Polyethylene. Thats the same stuff that plastic bags are made of! And plastic bags are killing turtles. And turtles are under threat of extinction. So obviously these things are going to poison us if they get into the food chain.

Just recently in my locale, a local gun club has been flagged for allowing people to dump what was originally to be green waste into an old quarry adjoining land given back to the local aborigines. Turns out they had allowed people to dump whatever, including sludge possibly pumped out of houses that had been flooded in 2010. The Gun club has been fined $100,000. Companies such as unilever should be fined and made to pay for the cleanup of the products intentionally put into the environment.

roughbarked said:

Companies such as unilever should be fined and made to pay for the cleanup of the products intentionally put into the environment.

Equally, regulators should be sued for not realising that non-degradeable components in cleansing products will make their way into surface waters.

Nah really … is there evidence that this is harmful?

dv said:

Nah really … is there evidence that this is harmful?

to humans or ecosystems? Fish and birds have been found to have gad a gutfull of all this.