By Jordan Weissmann, Slate, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Jan. 4, 2016 – You know the plastic microbeads in your face and body wash that are meant to exfoliate your skin or some such? Well, their days are numbered. This week, President Obama signed a new law that will ban use of the particles in soaps and toothpaste starting in 2017.
Environmental activists have grown increasingly alarmed about the dangers posed by microbeads in recent years as researchers discovered that tons of the tiny plastic bits were making their way into U.S. lakes, rivers, and oceans after washing down drains and passing through the filters in water treatment centers. The concern is that once out in the wild, the pellets absorb toxins such pesticides, then make their way into the food chain after being consumed by fish and other marine organisms that mistake them for eggs or plankton. Those toxins could then, eventually, end up in the fish fillets or sushi on your dinner plate.
Perhaps slightly less alarming but no less disgusting: Some dentists have found beads from toothpaste stuck in their patients’ gums, where they may lure bacteria and potentially cause problems such as gingivitis … which would seem to defeat the point of using toothpaste.
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