An examination of skin exfoliation products by an environmentalist group found that 108 out of 308 personal care products contain plastic microbeads, which the group said could absorb toxic substances and enter the food chain, threatening human health.
Taiwan Watch Institute has been sampling facial foams, shower gels, toothpastes and other personal care products since August, institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) said yesterday, adding that they have found out that about one-third of the products contained microbeads — plastic particles smaller than 1mm in diameter — that are widely used as exfoliating agents, and that a bottle of facial foam could contain up to 1 million microbeads.
Up to 70 percent of products that claim to have a scrubbing or peeling function contain plastic microbeads, Hsieh said.
“Microbeads absorb toxic substances around them, such as heavy metals and pesticides, making it like a pill full of highly concentrated toxins. Microbeads could enter the food chain and affect human health, as marine organisms could consume microbeads after the material, which water purification plants could not filter, enters the ocean,” he said.
A Belgian study published last year estimated that the annual dietary exposure for European shellfish consumers can amount to 11,000 microbeads per year, calculated by the concentration of microbeads in two species of commercially grown bivalves, institute researcher Sun Wei-tzu (孫偉孜) said, adding that the microbeads could pose greater health risks than large plastic waste due to the effect of biomagnification.
Ninety-five percent of microbeads are made of polyethylene (PE), the most common plastic, primarily used in plastic bags, films and containers, in addition to polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate and nylon, Sun said, adding that PE has a greater capacity to absorb pollutants than other plastics.
Due to their low cost, microbeads have been used to replace sea salt, nut shells and other natural materials as exfoliating agents, he said.
Eight US states, including Illinois and California, have banned the use of microbeads, and the Canadian government is moving to prohibit the substance, he said.
He called on the government to ban microbeads, while calling on consumers to avoid using personal care products containing PE, adding that consumers can use smartphone applications to scan a product to see whether it contains microbeads.
The Environmental Protection Administration said that there is no existing measure to regulate microbeads in terms of their size, concentration or materials used in manufacturing, and the agency needs to assess the environmental impact of microbeads before determining whether to ban the material, while there is no fixed timetable for establishing relevant measures or potentially imposing a ban.
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