Microplastics: The Destructive Agent in Personal Care Products

Plastic is one of the most dangerous pollutants on our planet today. This is primarily because, as we have learned throughout the past fifty years or so, plastic can take hundreds to thousands of years to decompose. When many people think of plastic pollution, they visualize sea turtles confusing plastic bags or plastic soda rings for food; however, while these forms of plastic are quite harmful, some of the most concerning pollutants are smaller than a fingernail.

Have you ever used a facewash, toothpaste, or body scrub containing exfoliants?While some of these products use natural sugars and minerals as exfoliating agents, others have resorted to the use of microplastics. Microplastics are tiny pieces of polyethylene plastics that are typically less than five millimeters long, and they are a hazard to both the environment and our personal wellbeing. Because the pieces of plastic are so small, they filter easily through pipes and are even present after water filtration. So, when you wash that exfoliating body wash down the drain, it often finds its way into open bodies of water such as lakes or the ocean. Once inside these bodies of water, microplastics are accidentally consumed by nearly every trophic level of the aquatic food chain from salmon to zooplankton. Unfortunately, due to its microscopic size, the plastic then quickly filters into the bloodstream of organisms and often causes painful inflammation within organs such as the kidneys or lungs. Microplastics have also been observed to significantly reduce the reproductive rate of many aquatic species, decreasing overall biodiversity and abundance within ecosystems.

If this isn’t horrifying enough, these plastics find a way to enter our bodies as well. As was mentioned earlier, microplastics last a very long time, so when we eat seafood it is likely that some of the microplastics once consumed by the fish will work their way into our bodies. Moreover, because the plastics are still often present after water filtration, they could be in our drinking water.

Due to how long microplastics last in an ecosystem, all of the plastics released into water sources throughout the past century are probably still there today. Additionally, although the federal government recently placed a ban on microplastics, some companies are still incorporating them into their products.

So, the next time you buy a new tube of toothpaste or body wash, take a few seconds to read the label and ensure that the product does not include any microplastics.Look for ingredients such as “polyethylene” or phrases such as “gentle microbeads,” which indicate the presence of these harmful plastics, and when possible, opt for a natural sugar or salt scrub. Even toothpaste brands such as “Arm & Hammer” include baking soda as a substitute for plastic materials. This is an easy precaution that everyone can take to ensure that we stop putting plastic in both the environment and in our own bodies.