Microbeads Threaten Great Lakes, May Be on the Way Out

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Your facial cleanser may be harming the Great Lakes, and Michigan may join nine other states that are phasing out the sale of personal-care products containing plastic microbeads.

The grime-scrubbing microbeads are included in facial cleansers, toothpastes and some shampoos and are so small they bypass water-treatment facilities and end up in lakes, oceans and rivers, where they remain indefinitely, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Four of the five Great Lakes touch Michigan, and their environmental health is a key issue for the state. Not only can toxic contaminants attach to the microbeads, fish send them up the food chain when they eat the contaminated particles, Pallone said.

Great Lakes states Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana have already passed legislation phasing out the sale of products with microbeads by Jan. 2, 2018. So have California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland and New Jersey.

At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, and Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills, have sponsored legislation that would ban microbeads in personal-care products.

“A federal ban will ensure the essential elimination of a patchwork of regulations across the states,” Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant testified U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in May. “You’d get consistency and conformity.”

The federal proposal remains in committee, with no action taken since May.

The personal-care products industry says it will remove microbeads, but is exploring alternative, biodegradable ingredients that would meet consumers’ demand for the scrubbing agents. So far, they’ve come up empty.